


Build a Ship to Wreak

by felicia_angel



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Air Force and military stuff, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Chris has issues, Gen, I have one crack idea and it turns into a universe, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Poor Wesker, RE5 rewrite, Tricell is the badguys now, Uroboros as a symbiote, Verbal Abuse, Verbal Humiliation, Wesker get on that, Wesker is an asshole, Wet Dream, Why?, chris needs a hug, i rewrite that story a lot, it needs it, it's not quite a venom-symbiote but it has a lot of the rules, poor Chris, same for the other weird viruses and parasites, shared memories, why not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2019-10-06 01:42:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17336297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/felicia_angel/pseuds/felicia_angel
Summary: In which the Uroboros virus is actually a strange symbiote-like thing that attaches itself to Wesker and...gets obsessed with Chris.This is totally not Wesker's fault, no way, he hates Chris Redfield. Now he just has to...figure out the best way to tell the new thing in him that and get it tocooperate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was rewatching the final fight and also I joined some Symbrock stuff and this is the result. I blame Pelissa.
> 
> She likes taking the crack-fic blames, apparently, so that doesn't help me out at all.
> 
> Unbeta'd, because I have enough stories for others to beta.

When Albert Wesker arrives at the old, hidden Umbrella base in Africa, he’s surprised to find that the Uroboros is not a virus. It’s a mass of...something, dark and with a ruby-red color going through it like the veins of a mineral deposit, writhing along the huge, black mass of eel-like tendrils that shifted lazily when disturbed by the instruments. Excella and her men never find it, focused on the flowers that sprout from its resting place and their own intriguing abilities to affecting RNA and the unstable nature of the virus. It reminds him of all the others who hadn’t noticed Plagas when it was hidden, sealed in the deep tomb until released by that cult who had no clue how best to utilize them to their full extent. 

Their little plan would not have worked, even with Leon Kennedy coming into the village, but Wesker’s had, even if poorly because of Ada’s multiple loyalties. Still, between the t-Abyss Tricell had acquired on the doomed ships, not to mention the antibodies in Jill’s system gained after the reunion in Spencer’s cliffside mansion, Wesker had more than enough viruses to play with and utilize into a more dangerous and stable strain than the plant’s own failure. It resulted in a strain that allowed for a change into more the types of beings Wesker himself was - beings beyond the frailty of human experience, the ones who would take over the world - while the rest were mindless animals, driven by instincts for food and blood, violence and anger.

A perfect way to cull the waste of humanity he’d had to deal with for so long. That just pieces of it had become such a powerful weapon in their hands was enough to show the actual mass’ full potential. He would have to thank Jill later, after they finished with his work. He put the mass he found into one of the rockets for dispersing the virus, while Excella is attempting to keep the B.S.A.A out of their hair. He doubts some parts of the plan, of course - despite some projections, the virus sample of Uroboros could not quite carry the same effect in aerosol form as when injected, and the atmosphere would only chill it, not keep it at its needed temperature. However, the mass  _ would  _ survive, and it could easily begin the spread, begin to work its abilities and powers to create the new race.

The race that Wesker was destined to rule, as their God, their creator. The race to follow mankind and rule the world, with Wesker to lead them.

When he learns that Chris was chasing after him, he begins to worry. For some reason, he has always managed to fail when Chris is around - it’s why he allows Excella to brew her little potion that adds to his abilities and strengths, even if it has to be administered multiple times a day and, thus, put in him contact with her and her...desire for him. His worry is justified, since Excella’s attempt to get them to leave and her own attempts to kill Chris and his current partner fail each time. 

It’s time he dealt with the man, time he simply killed him as he should have years ago, back in the mansion, or perhaps even before then. The young man had been full of promise, even after he’d been summarily thrown out of the Air Force when they should have granted him all of the medals for bravery. He should have simply done his job and, after that incident with Marini, he should have joined Wesker. Instead, Wesker had been forced to lose time and valuable data because of Chris, had gained the lesser t-Veronica that infected the young man Chris’ sister had been so sweet on, and had nearly lost the Plagas virus.

Well, that was more Krauser’s fault for his failure to procure a good specimen, even before his death, but Wesker supposed he could add it to Chris’ list of failings, since he’d been destroying the form of Plagas that Wesker was using in Africa since he got here. He was simply too naive and focused on doing what was ‘right’ to ever figure out what needed to be done, what  _ could  _ be done. When Jill’s quiet voice, muffled by the mask she wears, comes in to announce the BSAA’s arrival, he relaxes somewhat. He has his trump card to deal with Chris. He’ll leave that to her, to the reunion that will end so badly for them both, repayment for all they’d done to destroy his plans.

When it fails - when Chris arrives with his new partner as opposed to his old one onboard the ship, Wesker’s anger only grows. He has to kill the man this time,  _ has  _ to. There’s no reason for Chris to be alive any longer! Wesker’s ascent into godhood is at hand, and to allow someone so base, so useless and  _ normal  _ as Chris Redfield to survive is simply abhorrent. It’s a mockery of everything Wesker was taught and knows, that such a man is still alive, that such a man has  _ survived  _ for so long...

He should have died in the Arklay mansion. Wesker would make sure he dies  _ here. _

 

\--

 

It wakes due to the sudden touch of something warm and alive, the contact of flesh, blood, skin, and bones, shoving as deep into it as it can, offering itself up to it instead of being tentative, curious, confused. It moves, flowing up quickly as it gets underneath the skin, into the veins and arteries, tasting the strange-yet-unique blood as other parts of it move up the arm and into the body, melding into the strange thing that disturbed its slumber.

The first thing it feels is that the one that grabbed it is male, a Human -  _ NO, not human, I’m better than those low-life -  _ with something strange-yet-unique aspects running through it’s blood, fighting for dominance and power, overrunning his natural defenses in a dangerous way. It can already feel the dark thoughts, angry and swirling, trying to fight so that one can direct its actions and powers.  _ I am worth your power. I am worth directing your power to destroy our enemies! _

Uroboros is not directed, not until it views it’s host’s worthiness. The host still bares its teeth in rage at two others nearby, pointing weapons at Uroboros’ new host. The host’s will tries to exert itself, forcing a few of the tendrils to make metal siding from its prison now into a deadly weapon along the arm that is now fully made up of Uroboros as it engulfs the new host, the need to protect and keep this being alive, so Uroboros would stay alive, giving what little control needed to allow the host to fight. 

Uroboros feels more and more of the host, of the nerves and systems, leading up to the mass of neurons and other things that holds its host’s consciousness. 

All the host  _ wants _ ,  _ needs _ , is the man in front of him, glaring at them angrily but keeping his focus.

Uroboros has not had many hosts, even before its long sleep when they and others like them arrived in this place. Now that Uroboros is awakened from slumber, the various bits from its dead cells that were taken tingle in the back of its other consciousness, though they have been destroyed. The man before them, whom the host wants and needs and...hates?...has appeared multiple times, and defeated its smaller bits each time. The host  _ hates  _ the man for that destruction, hates the man for being  _ alive _ , but Uroboros is not full of hate for the man before them, holding his gun and moving forward, inching enough that it could protect the other Human nearby. The man is yelling, the words a jumble, the anger at its host also there in equal measure. The host thinks many things in the mass of emotions and anger it has for the man, believing him  _ lesser  _ and  _ nothing. _

No, this man is  _ perfect _ . 

_ WHAT? _

The anger of its host and the refracted mind it - he - has makes Uroboros confused, enough so the man’s attempts to go after his quarry are hampered as he fights. Pain erupts from the bits of skin that are left, distracting the host, Uroboros moving to gain more control, taking more and more hold of it’s imperfect host’s -  _ Imperfect? No, HE’S imperfect, out of regulation, that man, CHRIS I should have -  _ fights for control as Uroboros finds itself distracted. It follows the thread of angry memories and thoughts, digging deeper into his host’s mind to find the core and learn more, only to be thrown back out to the current fight as the host uses the tendrils under his control to attack the two, to follow the man, to  _ kill CHRIS _ . 

Uroboros gave up it’s attempts in the face of the immediate danger it now senses. Whoever the man - Chris - was to the host was unimportant at this moment, despite how much of the man’s mind seemed to light up upon seeing or coming near the other man. What matters now was that this resourceful human before them was there, and had destroyed the other parts of them, defeating so many others like them.

_ He hasn’t defeated  _ us _. He hasn’t defeated  _ me _. He  _ is _ unimportant and impeding our greatness! _

It’s odd, to hear and feel it’s host adamant denial, but weak and tired still from the long sleep, Uroboros allows its host to drive things for a bit as Uroboros works to keep it alive - the disease in it’s blood is making it hard for the host to stay standing and focused. The heat of the area allows Uroboros to know they are near - no,  _ in  _ \- an active volcano, this world’s magma up near the surface as they fight. It warns its host against getting too close. They are not fireproof, and the one before them - Chris - knows this. They have already defeated the pieces of Uroboros used before now, with fire and heat they couldn’t get normally.

_ Pieces are not  _ you.  _ They are not as  _ WE  _ are now. I will kill him. I will end this, and defeat him, and bring about my change. My new world. _

The fight is not quick, their host using his knowledge of the other man to attack him, but the heat and their weak, new connection meaning that the man is able to stay ahead of them, despite it all. It listens as the host makes its verbal arguments, tries to rope in the man - Chris - to his beliefs and understanding, limited as the host’s understanding is.

_ My understanding is not limited! Humans are weak, pathetic! Ones like Chris are weaker and worse than pathetic! I will winnow them out, like they should have been long ago! _

Chris fights them, shooting at the exposed area that’s created from Uroboros’ weakened state and his need to fix his host’s blood. Chris quickly moving around and to their back when they get closer to the other Human, grabbing hold from behind and hitting at them as the other human - a woman - yells in worry.

“Now, Sheva, shot him!” Chris’ voice echoes near their ear.

“I can’t without hitting you!”

“Then shoot  _ through  _ me!”

Uroboros wraps and grabs at Chris, jolts of thoughts and memories making it hard to hold on whenever it touches the warm, exposed skin of the man on their back, bits of the half-formed tendrils sticking to cloth and hair whenever he pulled and struggled against them. When the woman stabs at the red orb, Uroboros and its host stagger, the hold behind them loosening before another, serrated edge dig into the back. Uroboros’ host, even without seeing it, seems to know it. Memories and feelings flow through their host and the man stabbing them, too fast for Uroboros to catalogue. The stabbing sends their host reeling, trying to focus and demanding  _ more _ \- more power, more influence, more control, more that can finally kill the man who stabbed him with the knife the host  _ gave _ him. 

A knife he  _ should not  _ still have.

The area near them becomes unstable, the heat from the magma and smell of sulfur causing the two humans to back away as Uroboros and its host nearly fall into the hot lava nearby. It’s host growls in frustration, screaming as pain runs through him. Uroboros can see the outcome, clear as ever, even as its host denies what is before him, trying to demand more despite the pain.

The sound of an aerial machine, something to come and help the others - Uroboros can already see that it’s host has no one to come in such a machine - signals their loss. They cannot win this fight, and this is the third time that the man has won against them. He watches as the two quickly climb up a ladder, Uroboros regaining control back from its host, throwing a long line to grab the bottom of the helicopter. The whole thing tilted and rocked as Uroboros pulls the wounded host up to the open area, dropping the body down as it slowly formed itself into restraints, seeing multiple weapons pointed at the bright red center.

“ **_We are Uroboros. We submit to the one who has beaten us._ ** _ ” _

“‘We’ don’t do anything!” its host screams from where he’s attempting to struggle to get up, barely managing to get up on his elbows, despite the pain radiating through him. He is stubborn, for one already damaged and in pain from all that is occurring. “I will--.”

Uroboros puts its host to sleep and looks back at Chris, who looks almost like he’s not sure what to do, gun only lowered slightly but still at the ready. 

“ **_We submit to you, Chris Redfield. We will hold him until such time as you see fit to use him._ ** _ ” _

 

\--

 

Chris Redfield is  _ very _ confused. He’s not just confused, he’s downright  _ confounded _ by the change of things. Only a day ago, he’d feared the worse for what might have been done to Jill - walking into that open room, seeing the figure in the chair, he’d believed Wesker had…

Chris looks at the monster that spoke in a strange, deep growl that’s almost like Wesker’s voice watches with weird red eyes, fractured like rubies and shifting as it stands over the unconscious, hurt Wesker. Now that he sees him, he realizes that Wesker  _ looks  _ horrible - the near-golden color to his skin from the magma’s glow now appears overly pale, almost ghost-like, and the strange stains from the new infection remain, like deep burn marks along his back and body. Even though he hates Wesker for all he’s done, whatever is going on now is almost far worse, and it’s sheer luck that he even has something willing to keep Wesker from escaping, at least for now. Enemy or not, Wesker must answer for everything he did. Chris grabs the first aid kit, his head clearing in the face of someone needing help, “Fine, whatever, but let me take care of his injuries. I’m not having him die on me.”

The creature tilts its head, or at least the mass of tendril and tentacle-like parts that  _ appeared  _ to be a head, before disappearing  _ into  _ Wesker, though bits of it still appeared in dark patches and exposed wounds that seem to shift all over the other man’s back. Chris glances at Jill, worry clouding his face as she gives him a warm, but weak, smile. It’s enough for him to know she’ll be ok, but it still makes him worry.

Less than 24 hours ago, she’d been under this madman’s control. Now, whatever the hell he’d infected himself with - which was apparently  _ sentient _ \- might stop their chances of closure, might stop them from punishing Wesker for all the lives he’d ruined and the troubles he’s caused. Besides, how long before the thing is working with Wesker, before it decides to ‘test’ Chris again and, finding him wanting, breaks Wesker out of their hold again? Chris can’t let this madman try to destroy the world for his crazy beliefs. Chris finds himself looking up at Jill again, who relaxes near Sheva as they speak quietly, neither apparently wanting to get near Wesker. They’re probably worried about the monster that said he’d only ‘submit’ to Chris suddenly attacking, and Chris quickly works to get Wesker stable and restrained on his own, not wanting them endangered by the madman again.

That Jill is even here,  _ alive,  _ is still a staggering thing for him to think about. That Wesker is alive, no matter what else he’s put on his already damned soul, is almost too much to believe. The virus thing...he’d seen people “willpower” their way through some of the t-virus stuff, especially with the t-Abyss virus. If this was based off something similar, than Chris can guess the mass of Uroboros or whatever that Wesker took hold of when he was determined to finally win is the originator for those, and some of it’s intelligence or something was in each bit of the virus.

It’s not something he wants to think about, so instead Chris finishes up securing Wesker, hoping the  _ thing  _ and he don’t wake up during the flight, then checking on Jill, who is hiding a phone he didn’t realize she had and looking almost guilty, Sheva watching him with some concern.

“Will you be alright?” Sheva asks, moving to sit near Captain Stone and the pilot, who seems determined to make jokes that Chris can’t quite understand.

He looks to Jill, who gives him a raised eyebrow as he glances between the two. “What?”

“I’m fine,” Jill insists, which means she isn’t, or at least won’t be, and he gives her his own look. “I will be. But what about you?”

“What about me?”

Jill mutters something that suspiciously sounds like “Barry owes me more than $20 for this” before continuing, “Chris, I know you. You’re about to fall over the moment you think we’re ok, which means in a week you’ll either be out of it or forced on leave. I’m fine. Sheva can help out, and so can Stone. You need to  _ rest _ .”

_ I’ll rest when I’m dead _ springs to his mind, but the idea of it was always something that Chris never wanted to think about. His mom had said that, after dad died and she’d started to work all those jobs. 

It didn’t help them out, when she made good on that promise and left Claire and he alone.

“Ok,” he mutters quietly, allowing her to motion for him to sit near her. He’s between her and Wesker, because even tied up, the man is a threat. 

He’s not letting him take her again. He won’t let him hurt her again.

With her nearby, the copter’s steady thrum as it flies them back to base echoing around them, Chris doesn’t even realize he fell asleep the moment his eyes shut.

 

\--

 

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** You owe me $20

_ Barry: _ ????

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** *Image attached*

Barry blinks at the new image, seeing a photo of a blond-haired but familiar face of Jill Valentine. Behind her is a sleeping Chris and Wesker, both looking far too serene for all that the two had been through - all that Wesker had put Chris through - for the past few years.

_ Barry: _ JILL?

_ Barry: _ Wait, why is Chris asleep on his shoulder?

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** he’s tired and heavy. What were you feeding him while I was dead?

_ Barry:  _ He wanted to be able to punch Wesker hard enough to make him blink. Not my fault.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER:** *Image attached*

The new one shows Chris  having turned his head a bit more against Wesker’s shoulder, and while Wesker himself had shifted his head a bit, tilting it more towards Chris, so his cheek is nearly touching Chris’ hair.

_ If Enrico was still alive he’d owe me $50...damnit. _

Barry’s still a bit giddy at the fact that Jill is alive, even if she’s suddenly turned blonde, and especially glad that Wesker’s been caught, but how that happened, and what it was about that--

_ Wait, I owed her twenty if...when did  _ WESKER _ admit to  _ that?

Because there had been a lot of betting pools between Bravo and the very, very annoyed members of Alpha, and the pools ended up being  _ very  _ specific over the course of two years with Chris and Wesker on the team. One of them, argued long and loud and to the blushing of all in the room, was Jill’s assertion of who would be “the bottom” of that particular duo. Barry had believed completely that there was no way Wesker would allow such a thing to happen to him, and if anything, he’d walk in one day to find out that Chris had done something to end up bent over the captain’s desk, and if they were lucky it’d end all of the tension they’d had to deal with. 

Because despite Chris being a great pointman and Wesker being an overall good captain, even before the mansion incident, Chris still got on Wesker’s nerves when he went up against Irons, and Wesker made calls that Chris hated, and that got them into arguments, and everyone had started making bets on when they’d just  _ kiss  _ and lose all the sexual tension that was going on between them. Jill and Chris at least were...whatever they were...by the end of it, but that hadn’t stopped her from being ready to push the Captain and Chris together if it’d meant they’d get together. Everyone, by the end, had been ready for it.

Now, though, all of that had changed to simple raging  _ hate _ on both sides, which Barry understood to a degree. He hates Wesker too, for the way he’d used Barry, threatened his family, and how things ended in the mansion. Learning the bastard had lived and tried to go after Chris’ sister had only stirred more and more of his fatherly rage. He’d met Chris and Claire after their parents died, when Chris was barely seventeen and trying to figure out a way to protect his ten-year-old sister from some unnamed evil of his extended family. Barry had done his best to protect his friend’s children, until Chris joined the Air Force and, the moment he could, had his sister move in with him. Barry never got a straight answer out of either of them what they were afraid about, and he definitely didn’t get a straight answer from Chris after he was thrown out of the Air Force for disobeying an order, and especially not for the bullshit trial he’d gone through. The only person that Chris had trusted besides Barry for a long time were the other S.T.A.R.S team members, and that had only come after Chris was accepted in by Wesker and put into the very serious position of Pointman. Speyer and Jill had also gotten him more invested in the teams, and though he sometimes came off as ‘paranoid’, it was also obvious that Chris had a good handle on knowing when something was up, and his paranoia in some areas was also obviously justified in a lot of cases.

But damn, if he could show this to most of the S.T.A.R.S team, he and Jill would have won 9 of the 15 pools going on about those two.

He just needs to find out  _ how  _ she can prove he owes Jill $20, to make it 10 of 15.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wesker wakes up, Uroboros is a shipper, and Chris is very, very tired.

It takes far longer than Wesker likes to wake, glaring up at the fluorescent lighting and sterile walls of the hospital. His memories feels muddled, and for a moment, he expects to see one of his old doctors to come up, speak to him about his failings for Lord Spencer, for Umbrella, and “ _don’t you want to do better, Albert?_ ”, or for someone from S.T.A.R.S to come up - Marini, or Jill, even Barry - to chastise him for making them worry before he gives them false platitudes. He half expected to see Chris there, asleep in the chair, tense despite how out of it and tired he was, before a nurse chased him off.

He didn’t need those weaknesses, even if it had felt so…

Wesker pushes the memories back, focusing on the present hospital setting as the memories of the fight, of Uroboros and the strange mess of minds, and of the ending to that fight. He notices the armed guards nearby and outside, many already nervous and waiting, strange for the BSAA men he’d seen before during the testing phase of the Uroboros and Plagas. His weakened state might have to do with whatever alien entity Uroboros was, and all he needs is to overcome it, break out, and start over.

_Again._

There were no shortages of places he could go and offer up his expertise, and Uroboros would make him even more formidable and dangerous, an ally they would eagerly welcome. It might have pushed his schedule back, but he could easily destroy humanity, rework their weakened--

**_Bottleneck the species? Is that the best idea you have? No wonder Chris Redfield continues to defeat us._ **

Wesker barely allows himself to show any external sign of discomfort or disbelief, but the internal disgust still flows through him as he looks around the fortified hospital room he’s in. _And who’s fault is that?_

**_Yours. You were in charge of our power. I was still waking up._ **

Wesker allows his brows to knit as he examines a few things in the room that seem out of place while subtly testing his bonds. _I’m not the one who could have taken down the helicopter, and instead said...what you said, and to_ him _of all people!_

He’s not about to say it, not even _think_ it, or _who_ it was said to by the monster. Such an idea, that he’d give some nobody like Redfield an inch after Wesker had thrown off his ties to humanity and gained his abilities, and even managed to control Uroboros?

Who was Redfield to judge him? Who was this _THING_ in him to judge him?

 **You** **_allowed me in. Unlike the others that hosted me, you sought out my power and now you are blaming me for your own failure?_ **

_I am not a failure!_ Wesker shifts to try to sit up, hissing as pain fills him, making him notice a few of the guards glance at him, worry showing as one raises his hand up to his ear, turning away to mutter away and report. Wesker focuses on his own body instead, feeling how sore and painful he is from the extended fight and the remaining viral load that Redfield had used on him. If he can guess, it’s forcing his the existing viruses to fight, like when you have multiple diseases at once, which means he’s going to have to use Uroboros all the more, instead of his own abilities.

The memory of the injection and what occurred afterwards makes Wesker’s anger rise. He should have killed Chris when he opened that damned door on the plane. Hell, he should have killed him before getting Tyrant, but Wesker had needed that final bit of test data.

**_You are here, now, trapped and without the one we have failed to defeat. He even did his best to make sure your wounds were taken care of, after all that you tried to kill him._ **

It’s not surprising. Wesker knows that given the chance, Chris wouldn’t allow those he captured to escape through death. For all his bravado in the Antarctic base while saving his sister, Chris would have just as easily taken Wesker out and brought him back to face justice, or turn on Umbrella, over leaving him to die. Now that he is trapped and angry at himself and the new...thing...inside of him, Wesker can only huff at his weakness until a nervous doctor comes in, flanked by more of the men in similar garb to those who had hounded him and Excella until he’d unleashed the small bits of Uroboros.

The alien thing in his body shifts, bits moving just under his skin, as the doctor looks them over, nervousness seeming almost played up for something or someone’s benefit. The doctor shifts as Wesker watches them before saying, “Um, Mister...Wesker, yes, I’m here to make sure you...that is…” the doctor shifts again as Wesker glares them down.

 **_We wish to submit to--_ ** _Stop using that word!--_ **_to Chris Redfield. If they come near us, we will defeat them._ **

_Will you? Or will you simply give in like you did_ last time?

The needle the doctor pulls out is apparently empty, and the doctor get close enough that they could have easily drawn blood. Another one pokes out of the doctor’s lab coat as they reach for that, making Wesker’s eyes narrow as he glances at the supposedly “nervous” doctor, who is now looking far more serious. The guards fallen too close to not see the gleam in the doctor’s eye, or the syringe he’s taking out, and at least one smirked at him when he noticed Wesker watching him.

Wesker isn’t sure what happens, beyond feeling a sudden, violent pull from something _inside_ of him, his vision briefly darkening even as he hears an attempt to call for backup before all falls silent. He blinks as he looks around at the damage - the bed is twisted and broken, now on the far side of the room, and the doctor is dead, syringes in his limp hands. The guards, even the ones who’d been outside, are all unconscious or dead, he can’t tell and finds himself not at all interested beyond being able to get some items so he can easily escape and get his old equipment back.

Wesker leans down, hissing at the pain of his sore muscles, and picks up the full syringe, examining it curiously before anger washes over him at the familiar logo. Tricell had sent these men, and the BSAA had allowed them by to watch over Wesker. They’d allowed them to get _this close_ to him. No wonder it had taken so long to even get the information on Umbrella and take it down, if this was the shoddy work the BSAA and Chris were doing.

_Poison, or something equally damning. Pathetic._

**_They are, compared to--_ ** _If you say his name again without referencing murdering him, I will--._

Wesker feels himself hit the wall before he even registers the same shift from his body. He’s unable to move, arms spread out, having landed where his feet can’t touch the ground. The thing appears before him, slithering out of his pores of his chest and creating a monstrous head and neck in front of him, the tube-like tentacles now more sleek, lined with ruby-red and cat’s-eye yellow that stand out against the black. The monster glares at him as pearl-colored, jagged teeth open in the approximation of a jaw, though the voice doesn’t sound outside of his head.

 **_You barely kept us from the volcano’s lava, barely kept yourself from death, and you believe you can order us around? That is not how this will work, Albert Wesker. I_ ** **AM** **_Uroboros, the thing from which all of your plaything viruses come from. Do you not think that, while you slept, I did not gather up all the information from the pieces of me, mutated as they were, still on this miserable rock? Or do you think I was the only one of my kind to land here, and from that, all others came? I, Abyss, Plagas, it is from us that you created your disease, and from me that they had any power...that YOU have any power._ **The thing - Uroboros - opened his mouth as bits of what might be drool or saliva slowly fell to the floor in wet clumps. Despite this, Wesker does his best to keep it’s gaze, angry as it is.

 **You** **_took me in, despite the risks, which makes you far more desperate and dangerous than the men who originally found me, the one you called Spencer and his others._ ** **You** **_are mine now, and_ ** **we** **_are Chris Redfield’s, to submit to him when he demands of it._ ** Wesker blanched at the thought, Uroboros shifting closer to him as his face reflected in the strange eyes. **_Well? What are you going to do about it?_ **

_What is there_ to _do?_ Wesker thinks, straining but unable to break free. _He’ll want to cure me of you, want to kill us both. Are you so sure that you’d want to go be with something so full of hate, so listless and worthless, as Redfield?_

The monster growls in resentment before Wesker notices one of the men - a downed guard - starting to stand. He readies himself for some attack, for the monster to protect or use him as a shield.

It eats the guard instead, half the body falling down as the guns and weapons clatter to the floor, followed shortly after by a huge pool of blood. Wesker can all but _feel_ the sensation of it digesting the man in his gut, as the monster looks back at him with its cool, ruby eyes.

**_Chris Redfield has faced off against us and won. He has faced Abyss, and won. He has faced the remains of Plagas, and won. We will submit to him, and no one else. Not even you, Albert Wesker._ **

 

\--

 

The scene is a mess, even more so with the half-eaten body of one of the men there. Chris feels his stomach roll in anger and self-loathing. He shouldn’t have taken his eye off the man, he shouldn’t have--

 _“You were all Umbrella’s - no,_ my - _little piggies.” Wesker looked so proud of himself, blue eyes all but shining behind the dark sunglasses. Behind him, Rebecca lay, shot by their superior officer, the one who’d killed Bravo Team’s leader, who --_

 _“You’re under my command, so you are following_ my _orders, or is that too hard for you to understand Redfield?” Blue-green eyes, harsh and angry, inches from his face, glare at him as he stands at attention, glaring back. Around him, the others waited, glares heating the back of his head like focused lasers. His fault, always his..._

Chris drew in a breath, focusing himself as much as he could. His mind was wandering too much lately, probably a sign of something about to break, but he couldn’t allow that to happen.

Not now. Not yet. He had to focus.

“Chris!” Sheva’s voice catches his attention, grounds him more to the present. He sees her rush up with Stone nearby, the captain looking angry and at a loss. “They aren’t our men.”

“What?”

“They’re not BSAA. Tricell was apparently trying to tie up loose ends and called on some men they’d planted in our group.” She makes a face, like the mention of the group is enough to bring a smell to the room. “The doctor had some of the same virus Excella was using on Wesker. We’re trying to track him now.”

Chris silently is grateful when one of the men pulls out a tracker, explaining that they’d put it on Wesker when he was moved, during the time Chris, Sheva, Stone, and Jill had been looked over and in decontamination. Despite all that he’s learning, the scene and the killing of the soldier still gives him pause. They’d managed to bring in or convert a few mercenaries from one side to the other. The risks and failures brought up by Umbrella and other groups vying for their area now had been hampered by some of those wanting money realizing the dangers of taking up that cause without knowing who was behind it. Newer mercenary teams might, but the older ones, or ones with good men in there, avoided that like the plague it was. He’d assumed the unknown men had been a new mercenary team...apparently he’d been wrong, and now they were dead.

“Where’s he heading?”

Sheva gives him a worried look as the other soldier quick runs down the report, Sheva waiting until they’re gone before saying, “Chris, you just got off the mission. You’ve done your part, you--.”

“Sheva, you heard that...thing. Maybe it thinks I’m...I dunno what, but if it thinks I’m in charge or able to defeat Wesker, it might give us a better chance at stopping him from getting away.” It’s not a pleasant thought, especially not since Wesker’s betrayal all those years ago, but he’s not about to give up if it means he can stop Wesker from ruining other lives, or getting in with some other bio-terrorist group.

Sheva moves a bit as Stone says, “Are you sure about that, Redfield? You could be walking into something, and Wesker could have pushed his will on the thing. He’s not exactly a fan of yours.”

 _Understatement of the century._ He’s honestly no longer sure if any of the friendship or even easy fellowship he’d believed had with Wesker _was_ true or not. If anything, after what happened on Rockfort Prison, Chris had come to the realization that Wesker had never been his Captain or his friend - he’d hated Chris and the others for stopping him in his glory, and he hated Chris then for delaying his “plans”. Chris isn’t sure if he hated everyone else from that time, but he obviously hated - hates - Chris. Spencer’s final mansion and the ending to that had solidified it all in Chris’ head. That one-sided fight had focused on taking out Chris and Jill, killing Chris, and it had ended with Jill…

_“Time to end this.”_

_“You really fucked up things this time, Chris. The hell were you thinking?”_

_“If you say a thing, who do you think they’ll believe? Now shut up and”--_

“Do we have the location?” Chris does his best to focus, so he can see this through and finish it up. He can’t afford to be too caught up, can’t allow him to get away again. Wesker’s already created so much death and destruction, and Chris needs to _end this_ , needs to put a stop to it for good. He can rest later.

 

\--

 

Using what ability he has, Wesker manages to get near the old buildings that Irving had first used when thinking about his test sight. The village is thankfully empty, and much of what had been left are really simply items from before. It’s enough he can put on a new outfit - a shirt and pants, shoes and even his dark sunglasses, before he feels another, heavy wave of dizziness rush through him. It’s been happening more and more, since they left the hospital, and his vision has only been shifting between bad to worse since then.

**_The viruses are failing._ **

_I know that!_ He hates the resort he’s taken now, the thing only keeping him alive if it felt the need and unwilling to cooperate unless he finds Chris, ends things, and then...

Wesker banishes the train of thought as he lets out a growl of frustration and anger. He doesn’t need to think about that. He needs to get his items, get what he needs, get whatever tracking device they probably put in him out, and he needs to leave quickly. If he’s not quick, the BSAA will catch up with him, if Tricell doesn’t. The doctor wanting to give him more of the virus only seemed to hint that they were done with him.

No matter. He could find another company to work with.

**_Yes, moving from one to another without thought has worked out well. You were better off with STARS._ **

Wesker stopped, glaring at a mirror as he saw a reflection of himself seem to morph into the monster instead. Now far less tentacle and more blob-like, though with crags like a rock, the monster watched him carefully with its own refractive ruby eyes. Wesker sneered at it before moving away to the small workplace he’d had set up, further into the compound. This was when they’d been far more stealthy with their approach, despite Irving and Excella’s delusions of grandeur. He knew that the moment a hint of Jill’s presence was known, Chris would drop his work and rush over here, danger be damned. When Excella had flirted with the idea of threatening Claire, he’d pointed out that the t-Veronica virus was imperfect _because_ Umbrella had kidnapped Claire Redfield and not dealt with Chris first. Whatever anger Alexia might have had towards Claire from Alfred, her not killing Chris, and him unable to finish the job as well, meant that t-Veronica was lost.

**_All the more reason to--_ **

_You want to help, then stop bringing up things you don’t understand._ The Uroboros glares at him through the various reflective surfaces until Wesker moves forward, not wanting to have any conversation with the monster in his head. What did it matter what it thought?

He moved over to the table, quickly using a scanner and frowning when he finds the small chip. It’s in an area he can’t get to easily, and a sudden, strange internal _push_ before he feels a cutting, painful sensation on the back of his neck. The sound of a soft click on the ground makes him notice the bloodied chip behind him. Warm, wet blood trickles down his back only briefly.

**_What does it matter? Chris Redfield will find us again, and then--_ **

Wesker breaks the chip, violently grounding it under his heel. He doesn’t need it talking anymore, he needs focus. His vision darkens then clears again, the lights far too bright as he squints around, wondering about the strange changes. His eyesight had been this bad as a side effect of the additional virus Birkin had created for him, but he felt that it was a good compromise for his immortality and abilities. The way that things seem to be going, though, Uroboros is either doing something to him, or the virus that Chris had overwhelmed him with earlier that was making it hard. He grips a chair nearby to steady himself as he considers what to do next. The Uroboros makes him a good commodity but the thing’s need to be with _Chris_ of all people rolls his stomach with disgust. He is not about to give that man the chance to lord over his ‘win’ and act like he’s better than Wesker in anything.

Wesker’s vision swims again as he hissing at pain inside of his skull. If it’s Uroboros he’ll--

**_You can’t do anything. I am attempting to figure out why you are so upset, why you hate Chris Redfield, and to stabilize your body so it doesn’t die._ **

The answer is simple enough for him to think, so simple to find,but why the headache came, he’s not so sure. It’s there, simmering with only the mention of Chris, and the blond man lets out a growl of frustration, shoving what the thing wants at the monster in an attempt to keep the headache away, to get ready for any fight or escape he’ll have to do soon.

He hates Chris Redfield for his work against Wesker’s goal, for not seeing how things should be. Chris was bullheaded, and what Wesker _hates_ is that he can never become what he _should be_ . Chris was his pointman for a reason, was his _best man_ for that same reason. Wesker’s whole choice to leave Umbrella had greatly hinged on bringing what remained of the STARS team with him after X-day, banking on managing to hide his link to Umbrella and then turn them against Irons when he showed his true colors. Before the Leech and release of the t-virus upped his timeline, he’d hoped to bring Alpha team to his side, perhaps even some of Bravo, by whatever means necessary. He could have gotten Barry easily enough, if he used his family against him, and the same with some of the others. Jill was powerful and capable enough, as he’d found out when he’d held her under his power, but with something similar to his own power over the t-antibodies that he’d had to work with? She’d have been the type of asset even Umbrella would’ve craved.

But _CHRIS..._ Chris had all of the potential, the power, and was at his peak physical and mental shape. He was _perfect_ , he _should_ have understood, but no. The moment he complained to them about Rabbitson, Wesker knew that Irons would bitch to someone higher up. Even before that, when Wesker found out the two were friends, he should have made sure Rabbitson was watched, should have made absolutely sure the man was under lock and key at the mansion. No, instead Spencer and Umbrella had allowed him free, free enough to nearly spill what was going on, and Wesker had been forced to clean it up before Irons made good on his threats against Chris.

Then he’d had the audacity to _laugh_ at him. At Tyrant, the monster Wesker had worked on, created as the perfect being, the perfect weapon, years of research and work...and Chris had _laughed_ at it.

Chris Redfield is a little man who’s attachments got people killed, and who didn’t understand loyalty. It was why he was thrown out of the Air Force, why he constantly bounced around and was sent out with only traitorous sluts and Jill Valentine.

 **_Your reasons for hatred is foolish._ **The dark voice echoes in his mind as Wesker hears the klaxon sound of the alarms. He made his way into his inner sanctum, where the Red Queen’s files rested. He quickly types in his code, pulling out the file and easily hiding it as he grabbed his weapons, ready to take down Chris and whoever was foolish enough to follow him here.

**_Oh? You think I will help you? Your body and blood are trying to tear itself apart. I’m all that is keeping you upright now. I can only do one thing at a time._ **

_Aren’t you useless then._ Wesker’s harsh thoughts don’t elicit any arguments from the entity he now shares a body with as he stalks upward, looking around and a little grateful for the changes. At least his headache is gone, until he sees Chris again. He stalks out, glancing around and shooting a few of the men he sees coming at them, tilting his head as he notes the Tricell logo before snorting. It appears his old employer _is_ trying to clean up their messes a bit too late. He hears a few of the BSAA members muttering their plans, and smirks when one comes around the corner too fast, without looking, and falls back from his shot before he quickly stalks away.

Tricell might be a problem - they know most of the layout of his hideaway - but he has a few good passageways to slip through. He hears some of the firefight between the two teams as he pushes his way into a bedroom, stopping as a gun comes up next to his head.

“Don’t even think about it, Wesker.”

_Ah, there’s my headache._

Wesker moves quickly, hissing as his body screams in pain. He remembers what Uroboros had mentioned, about the viruses fighting, but he still pushes himself, grabbing at Chris’ arms to twist them up, hoping to break the man’s arm. Chris manages to break away before shooting at Wesker, bringing his free hand out to stop Wesker from pulling out his own weapon and hitting him hard in the kidney. Wesker kicks at him, bringing up his knee to Chris’ own side as the younger man lets out a gasp of pain before he headbutts Wesker. The two stagger, guns clattering to the ground as Wesker tries to grab at his, Chris kicking him hard and going in to tackle him, the two ending up on the bed in the room. They struggle more, Wesker attempting to get Chris off him but failing. He manages to get enough to nearly throw Chris forward and off of him, but Chris manages to correct himself as they end up nearly throwing each other off the bed, focused on pummelling each other until the door opens suddenly, the Tricell men streaming in and pointing guns at them, one reaching to pull Chris off with a gun ready as the others start to move up.

Wesker feels Uroboros pull out of him, this time so quick it feels like he’s being pulled apart, as inky tendrils blurs from his chest, wrapping around Chris and pulling him into a near compromising position between Wesker’s open legs. The thicker, more craig-like things move out, impaling or taking out the men around them, not even giving them time to fight back before they’re all splattered on the floor and walls. Chris calls out a warning to someone else outside, struggling against the inky thing that keeps him locked against Wesker before it pulls them down, nearly eye-to-eye with the other.

**_He’s defeated us. Submit._ **

_WHAT?_

**_SUBMIT!_ **

_NO!_

__

**_You are being IMPOSSIBLE. Chris Redfield has defeated you. He has defeated us. He has defeated all others and the bits of them that you and others have created to infect others. SUBMIT TO HIM!_ **

Wesker lets out a growl of anger and frustration as he struggles, unable to move from where he is. He doesn’t seem to realize how dumbstruck Chris looks until he glances over, realizing how close they ware to each other. It’s annoying of the thing he’d gotten to assume he is going to do anything of the sort with _Chris Redfield_ of all people, let alone allow Chris to escape alive if given the chance.

“Chris,” the voice of his new partner gets the Uroboros to growl as Chris struggles, shouting, “Sheva, get out of here. It’s dangerous.”

Wesker feels the strange, angry rolling from the Uroboros, smirking at the panicked and upset look that Chris has as he tries to get loose. As much as Wesker dislikes this position, with Chris’ hips and his own so close and in such a compromising position, he also knows that he can easily deal with the other BSAA members, especially since the Uroboros was so angry at their interference in whatever it wanted from Chris. If Chris notices, he doesn’t seem to care, instead struggling and trying to get out, doing the least amount of movement at their hips. Uroboros pulls him back down, nearly making them hit their foreheads as Chris’ eyes go wide, obviously surprised before anger shows up in his eyes as he grounds out, “Let me go. If you kill anyone out there I _will_ end you both.”

“ **_You will not._ ** ” Uroboros’ voice, deeper and filled with more gravel than his own, echoes in the room as a bit of it appears near them, Chris looking at it more than Wesker. “ **_You have defeated him and he will submit to you._ **”

“Then we’re leaving, and you’re not going to attack anyone outside.”

“ **_No. You will--_ **”

“I’m perfectly ready to have someone throw in a few incendiary grenades in here.” The threat is one that gets the Uroboros to back up, Wesker glancing at Chris before something in his chest constricts.

_He’s serious._

Chris had been suicidal before, but at least when facing off against Wesker on his own or with some other backup, he’d been able to have someone escape so if he’d died, Wesker would have to hope he had enough time to escape. This...was far different.

 _“Then shoot_ through _me!”_

He’d been willing and ready to be killed if it meant Wesker died. Chris was more than willing to allow his life to be thrown away if it meant his team was safe from Uroboros and Wesker.

_You want me to submit to someone so pathetic?_

The Uroboros doesn’t answer either of them, instead watching Chris who keeps up the staring contest until the Uroboros looks away first. Wesker would be impressed if he didn’t know that Chris is only this stubborn because of his faulty loyalty to people over ideals. For a man who once claimed he rushed into a deathtrap because ‘no one should be left behind’, he was getting more and more willing to throw his life away for meaningless gestures.

“I’m sure hearing you scream while being burned with us will not result in someone else’s death,” Wesker jeered as Chris kept his eyes on Uroboros. “I’m also equally sure that Jill will give you as wonderful an eulogy as you gave at _her_ funeral. What was it you said that I thought was so touching? Ah yes, how much you _loved_ her as your _partner_ . How you wished you could have _done more_ for her. How very... _emotional_.”

If Chris heard him - he did, there is not way he couldn’t have - he doesn’t show it. Uroboros seems uninterested in Wesker’s taunts at him, instead slowly retreating back into Wesker’s body as it mutters to him, “ **_We will leave with you. But if they attack, we will defend ourselves. If any others but you attempt anything, we will kill them._ **”

Chris leans back and moves away the moment he’s free, glaring at Wesker as Wesker only smirks back. He knows he hit a mark, even without his reaction being evident while facing Uroboros. Even _knowing_ what Chris said at a supposedly private funeral was a sign of his power over Chris, and Wesker would use that until he could regain full control over himself, with or without Uroboros’ immense power.

“I’m sure you can bring the Uroboros under your heel, but the moment I am free is the moment we end things,” Wesker growls, even if Uroboros can hear him.

Chris says nothing, instead shifting to have Wesker walk in front of him as he calls out, “He’s with me. Don’t make any threatening movements towards us. I don’t want anyone hurt. Sheva, you’re on point. If he does get out, light things up.” Wesker wonders if Chris still had the lighter he’d gifted him, or if he’s thrown it away in disgust at one point. He doubts he’ll throw it away - it had been a good lighter - but he also wonders if the group would actually try it, if it means Wesker would do his best to take out Chris as well.

Sheva walks near Chris, far enough away that she’s not threatening but obviously worried about Chris and Wesker as she watches them, mostly glaring at Wesker’s back before he hears her whisper to him, “Chris...are you ok?”

“I’m fine. We need to check on the Tricell members we encountered. Could you? I want to make sure no one else gets hurt.”

“Alright. Captain Stone is with Jill, if you want to see her too.”

Wesker smirks as he hears the pause, glancing as much as he can to see Chris’ look. He can’t, but he can still imagine the look on his face. Still, whatever he was going to do, Wesker knows that the moment he’s able to, he’ll be able to kill Chris for once.

**_You will submit to him. No matter what else you think, your reasons for hating Chris Redfield are flawed._ **

_They are not._

**_Oh? Then prove me wrong. If you can show me that Chris Redfield is not worth my time, without showing me the biased ideas you have from your time in S.T.A.R.S, from the bias of your years running from him, then I will be the first to take his head._ **

_...Deal._ Wesker smirks happily at the thought and barely holds in a chuckle. This will be easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dunno why but Chris always ends up as having bad backstory. Also fair warning that I'm using Jessica Sherawat (from Revelations) and an original character again because...um...  
> Look, Wesker is evil but Jessica is cringe and officially I hate the cringe a bit more. At least with evil I know what to do...
> 
> ...also check out [Pelissa's Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/pelissa/overview) because this is totally her fault and I love her for it ^^.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris gets his new orders, memories come up, and Uroboros is still a shipper.
> 
> Seriously.

Chris pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance and as his headache grows. It had been a week since they’d recaptured Wesker, since they’d gotten Jill back, and all he’s had to deal with is the BSAA and the paperwork of being Wesker’s keeper. The BSAA and the attempt to “smooth things over” with Tricell, despite all the evidence that one of their majority shareholders had been using their asset to create and sell dangerous BOWs, destabilizing a country already reeling from hard times. According to records they’d recently gotten, Excella had also been in contact with Jessica Sherawat and received a sample of the t-Abyss virus after that whole fiasco.

The reminder of the woman who’d betrayed them, nearly causing Jill’s death and the destruction of the BSAA even before it fully began, sours any good mood Chris might have had during that week. She was the first major betrayal since since the mansion, but he’s surprised that it doesn’t hurt...not as bad as the mansion. Between Wesker and the mention of Sherawat, though, Chris finds himself remembering things he doesn’t want to, wanting so much to have time to himself, time to...do what he needs to do...and it’s hard for him to continue the way he’s going. 

Something is going to break, and he can’t let it be him. 

Not when he’s the only thing keeping Uroboros, and thus Wesker, in line. Not when any scientist, doctor, agent - anyone else besides him - that get near Wesker runs the risk of being killed by the hateful dark  _ thing  _ he’d joined his body with. Not when now, Wesker is even more of a monster, and twice as dangerous as before.

Especially not since Sheva and Jill had talked to him about what he was doing.

Well, “talk” is a strong word. There had been talking. He’d listened, and nodded, and then Jill had ripped him a new one about his orders and about what he’d asked Sheva to do, not once but twice now, without a second thought besides the fact that Wesker would be killed and others would be safe afterwards. He’d argued his choices then, because she didn’t get to argue that with him after what  _ she’d  _ done.

“You sacrificed yourself for me, and it ended badly,” he barely manages to keep himself from yelling at her. Seeing the hurt and pain that comes up in her eyes from the bare mention of it, he looks away, ashamed of himself. If he could never mention it again, he would, but he knows until she understands, he’ll push the issue and he’ll put his foot in his mouth,  _ hurt her _ , and he can’t allow that. He can’t hurt  _ Jill _ .

“I’m only useful for a few things, Jill. Other people can easily take my place, but not yours.”

“Chris!”

The conversation had been blissfully cut short by someone calling to request something from Wesker, forcing him to go and deal with it. It’s what got him standing here now, having successfully avoided Jill for the past two days after the talk. Chris had noticed that Wesker was more and more annoyed by something as the time went on, and Chris’ appearance only seemed to upset him enough that the Uroboros monster was constantly attacking even those who came in with Chris. It’s why he has to keep the researcher out of the room, and deny their request.

“But the samples are--”

“You got samples earlier, and I refuse to put you in danger to get the same things from yesterday,” Chris argues, already at his wits end. “I understand what you want, and why, but you aren’t going to get them unless you give me the findings. Do you have those?”

“We’re awaiting approval from the--.”

“You don’t need the samples,” Chris interrupts, the researcher starting to protest before he holds up his hand, “Your team got them yesterday. Enough machinery checks on his vitals and information to keep that up-to-date. So, why are you demanding more?”

The researcher glares at him before stalking off, Chris glancing over to Wesker as he looks out. He doesn’t have his sunglasses on, eyes a strange mix at times of the original blue and reptilian red. Chris looks away and moves to a small desk nearby, seeing if there was anything he needed to check on before muttering, “Are you two going to at least behave so someone else can come and watch you?”

“Oh, and ruin all  _ your _ fun?” Wesker’s teasing tone only adds to the stress he’s under. God, Chris just needs a few nights. Just a few hours even, just…

“ _ Why is this door locked!? Open up, Redfield, or--” _

Chris looks away from Wesker and his cell, instead trying to focus on his paperwork and reports and his official disagreement with how they’re handling Tricell. He needs the distraction, but the fact that the cell is so bare doesn’t help. It’s still more than Wesker deserves, but the scientists and BSAA want their newest asset comfortable enough until they figured out what to do with him. He’s not a BOW, but the thing inside of him is obvious sentient, making just about everything they do with him a massive clusterfuck of paperwork. The Tricell men killed by Uroboros during the escape had not shown any signs of infection, and it had spoken to Chris at times, stating it’s unwillingness to work with anyone else. 

It’s at least not creating more monsters like what had happened with Excella.

_ “I thought they were partners?” _

He’d not told Sheva then that Excella had never been Wesker’s partner, that she’d been duped and used as he’d done with all his other “friendships”. It was later he told her what he believed had happened - that Excella, blinded by her wish to get with Wesker, blinded by Wesker’s charisma, had believed they were partners. Jill backs up that Excella had been rather touchy with Wesker, to the point that Jill would’ve felt sorry for Wesker in any other circumstance. The thought makes Chris’ stomach roll with disgust at the idea, but he doesn’t tell Jill why, and he does his best to not ask or look into that aspect too much. He doesn’t need more distractions, more reminders...

Chris does his best to focus on the present as he looks back over at Wesker, the other man watching him with a strange look on his face. Chris isn’t sure what it means, beyond simply being the look he’s given Chris more and more these past few days. It’s distorted now, the heavy-duty glass and reinforced metal dotted with breaks and cracks from where someone besides Chris had gotten too close, and Uroboros had attacked. Wesker probably hadn’t taken advantage of it because of Uroboros’ obsession with Chris.

_ Just what I need. Something and someone else after me for all the wrong reasons. _

“You seemed quite upset,” Wesker says, pacing his cage and watching Chris calmly. “What did they want now?”

“What does it matter to you? They aren’t going to get it if Uroboros will only threaten them,” Chris tells him, not wanting to explain why he really denied the request. Wesker’s blue eyes bore into him, and Chris returns the glare, trying to not let it get to him. It’s the same look, same eye color from before the mansion, reminding Chris of when he’d started fights with him over something Irons had said, or when he brought him in under the pretense of chewing him out for Irons’ perverse pleasure. Chris had sometimes stormed out, disappearing until the next time he had to return, apologizing however he was required, other times not apologizing until much later, when he’d felt there was no other way to get things back to normal. 

The first time it happened, Wesker had called him and, when Chris picked up the phone by the first ring, had told him that ‘insubordination could get someone killed’ before saying that so long as Chris didn’t drink and was near a phone, he could ‘allow him space to cool his hot head’. Chris suspects now it was just a way of keeping him distant, of keeping away the one person who had started to question things way before the mansion incident. If it wasn’t, then it was simply a way of reaffirming what Clay and the others had put into his record, something Irons and the others in Umbrella’s pocket had used against STARS when they’d come forward with the truth. 

There was no other reason for it, besides getting Chris to trust the man he never should have. Chris had always been back with who he trusted that were above him.  _ Insubordination _ write ups were still in his record, along with the largest of them all from his Air Force days, one he’d never touched because of the minefield it would unleash if he did.

“You really are a paranoid simpleton,” Wesker’s voice returns him to the present. He’s sneering out his disdain, as though Chris hadn’t heard it before, “but since you obviously failed whatever middle school science class you took, I suppose telling you that viral loads and infection rates change per  _ hour  _ over per  _ day  _ wouldn’t really penetrate that thick skull. You’ve only been dealing with medical companies and their BOWs since...oh, well, since the mansion. I would’ve thought you’d actually study up on that, but I am obviously aiming too high for you. Maybe if you’d spent less time running home to cry and more at work, you’d know what’s needed.”

Chris didn’t raise to the bait, Wesker’s smirk growing as Chris saw bits of Uroboros peaking out again. He’s not sure how much control Wesker has over it, but whatever amount is too much. The alien monster’s obsession with Chris at least gave them some time to figure out things, to separate it from Wesker, so they could finally bring him to justice.

“Nothing to say to that? You were talkative anytime we first saw each other, and from what I overheard in your radio chatter with your new partner, even when I wasn’t around.” The smirk seemed to grow even more confident. “Who’s the one holding grudges again, Chris?”

Chris let out a long breath, knowing there was nothing to say. Even if there was, what use would it be? He had no reason to have any sort of closure from this. He’d heard rumors, even here, of other groups and potential attacks. Fears of another Terragria or Raccoon City plagued the minds of many who knew the full story, and even those who didn’t. Now add Kijuju to the list…

There’s a soft knock before the door opens, Jill walking in confidently as the Uroboros shifts out, revealing more of itself. Wesker offers a smirk that is far more predatory for Chris’ liking, his body shifting to a more protective stance near Jill when he goes to intercept her, making sure the Uroboros doesn’t come after her. She doesn’t need it, but after everything that’s happened, all Chris wants to do is make sure she’s safe. He’s still amazed, everytime he sees her, that she’s alive and physically healthy. Mentally is probably another thing - whatever Wesker did or made her do is yet another thing the man must answer for - but for now the light touch of her hand on his shoulder is enough to get him to relax slightly. The memory of her pained look and their last conversation still makes him curse his own stupidity for bringing back the bad memories, and wishes he could have been more tactful. All the more reason she’s a much better asset to the BSAA than he’d ever be.

“Chris, apparently the BSAA made a decision, regarding...Tricell. They want want to send someone to question Wesker about Excella’s involvement in his work, and have you both formally report the findings.”

Chris frowns, angry at the audacity of the company and at how the BSAA had caved to their demands. Tricell was willing to turn a blind eye to one of their main backers experimenting on whole villages and destroying lives, harboring a fugitive and known bioterrorist, then they tried to kill the same bioterrorist, probably to hide any deeper involvement. Now they want to ‘question’ him...right.

“The BSAA said they’re going to allow it, so long as you supervise the meetings.”

“You’re joking.” He shakes his head, vaguely aware of Wesker listening in, the smirk still there. “No, no way Jill. I’m not letting them near him, not after the last two times.”

 

\--

 

If he’d known Jill would be here he would have thought up more taunts for her, but unlike Chris, Jill would not hold back, even with the threat of Uroboros. She’s also without the same sway she once had with the BSAA, apparently, not if they want Tricell to come in and are overriding the wishes of two founding members. 

He’s not surprised - the moment they let in the pharmaceutical companies, the BSAA was going to become just another enforcer for them. A way to test the drugs and diseases, and an easy group to act ‘angry’ at the right time while the companies passed it off as.... 

What was it that Excella said? “Unsanctioned bio-organics weapons development”? Something like that. It was less elegant than Umbrella’s work, but they’d left their rivals with little choice.

The earlier silence to his taunts had not helped his situation with Uroboros. Chris’ defensiveness of Jill seemed to only endeare it to him all the more, something that disgusted Wesker in a way he didn’t want to show.

Now, with Chris trying to keep Tricell from them because they’d attempted to kill Wesker?

**_You are being biased. He is perfect. You should have submitted to him far earlier than this._ **

The voice in his head gets Wesker’s smirk to vanish as he half-listens to the two talking. Jill apparently is as upset with the BSAA and their researchers and scientists as Chris is, though Wesker doesn’t understand why. Having worked as a scientist himself, he understands how annoyed, angry, and frustrated it would be to have someone like Chris breathing down his neck. Umbrella had allowed them all to work on their own side projects, so long as work for the main project was done, or so long as you didn’t kill researches, like Marcus did, or become a liability, as Alexia and Alfred had become by the end. 

Wesker frowns when he sees Chris shift, attention focused on Chris’ fist, clenched to the point that his knuckles had turned white. Even from here, he can tell that he’s digging in his nails too deep. He’d seen Chris do this too often, when stressed and without something to focus himself, but the first time had been...almost disturbing.

_ “So where is he? Where’s Redfield?” the man is drunk, staggering and smelling like whatever cheap bottle he crawled out of to demand a talk with Chris. Wesker isn’t having it, though Jill and Brad are the two that have intercepted him, Barry looking ready to step in if it gets too loud. Wesker glares at the drunkard as he tries to talk or get through. What  _ had  _ he signed himself up for when he took Barry’s advice and hired the young man? If this was who he brought in, Wesker was nearly ready to reconsider, but the memory of his combat scores stops him. Still, he doesn’t see Chris anywhere until the man staggered out, “helped” by Barry. Wesker finds him then, hidden behind a cabinet, fist white save for the small drops of blood starting to form and pool between his fingers. He doesn’t look at anyone or speak about it, instead going about his work silently, tense like a bowstring the whole time, and all but running out the moment he’s done with his mediocre paperwork. _

_ When he comes back in two days later, he’s sporting a bruised cheek and still won’t bother to look Jill, Brad, or Wesker in the eye. Barry’s attempts at a talk, and even Speyer’s challenge to a rematch gets nothing. He doesn’t speak to them properly until nearly a week after that, and isn’t truly himself until two weeks, when he finally argues with one of Wesker’s orders and looks him directly in the eye while doing so.  _

**_Why did he want to see Chris Redfield?_ **

The question pulls Wesker to the present, confusion coming to mind as he looks back at where Chris and Jill are still arguing. What did it matter why the man had wanted to see Chris? The result had been a loss of training and a dip in the man’s work during a critical time.

**_You don’t know,_ ** the Uroboros sounds almost upset, even disappointed and disapproving, getting Wesker’s anger to rise.  **_You worked with him, demanded your version of_ ** **perfection** **_, and failed to check when it failed to be produced because of one drunkard._ **

_ That was Chris’ failure, not mine. _

**_It was yours to allow it to happen for so long. A week of silence? Are you mad he didn’t come to you and give you an edge to use against him? Or is there another reason for your anger at them all? The drunkard, Rabbitson, all men who elicited such..._ ** **reactions** **_from Chris Redfield, reactions you never felt you earned?_ **

Wesker looks back at Chris and his clenched fist, the thoughts and scenarios now throwing him off. Why  _ had _ the man demanded Chris’ time? Why be drunk when he did so? What would make Chris so ashamed - that was the word for it, he was sure - that he’d avoid  _ Jill _ and  _ Brad _ ?

**_It was more than shame._ **

Wesker hates to admit when it’s right, but the Uroboros was. What Chris had been for that time was...afraid. He’d not looked at Wesker, not once managed direct eye contact until well into two weeks afterwards, but that whole time he’d walked on eggshells. Wesker hadn’t realized how badly the reaction was until he’d been forced to look back at it. 

It didn’t matter now. He wasn’t -  _ couldn’t  _ \- be afraid for Wesker, not with Uroboros, and he certainly couldn’t be afraid of Tricell and their intent. Chris knew that Wesker was trapped by Uroboros, tied to it. It’s doubtful he fears for his own life, considering how ready he was to throw it away before. So is he afraid  _ for  _ Wesker?

_ How dull. As if I can’t defend myself. _

The insult is almost enough to get him to speak up, insult his jailer again, but Jill’s next point has him step forward instead, curious, “They said they were going to send Sherawat with the liason.”

“Sherawat? Why would they risk sending her back to the BSAA at all?” Wesker tilts his head, wondering who this Sherawat was and what had gotten Chris and Jill so upset. He considers goading them into telling him more, but stays silent as he watches them talk quietly, turning away from him like he could read lips. It’s almost comical how much they try to hide from him now. Both had been open enough when he’d been their Captain. He almost wants to remind Jill of what she’d told him, as he tested the P30’s limits. Not to mention what he’d seen of Chris through the information Tricell, and thus Excella, had on him.

Jill shifts away enough that Wesker catches a look that Chris is giving. He’s seen that blocked off look before, after cases that are especially hard to figure out, but this is fairly bad. Wesker had gotten a bit of a thrill from seeing Chris’ eulogy, his sad look at Jill’s funeral, the way he carried himself. When he’d entertained the idea of allowing Chris to see the final victory, see Wesker’s rule over the world become complete, none of his fantasies had involved a broken Chris either - some spark of defiance was required before Wesker ended his life. 

But this is different, and Wesker feels a sudden...anger...well up inside of him. It wasn’t even Uroboros’, it was something else, something...

_ “Your employment history is quite lacking,” he says, glancing at the younger man Barry pushed into his office, saying he should take the chance on him. _

_ “I was mostly in the Air Force,” the younger man - Redfield - mutters almost sullenly as he looks back at Wesker, as near to at attention as he could get without being told. _

_ “Yes...I also see you got a general discharge. May I ask why?” _

_ Redfield’s eyes seem to shutter, as if losing focus, before mutters, “I screwed up, nearly got my team killed. I disobeyed orders and went back in to save someone when I shouldn’t have.” _

_ “Did he survive?” _

_ The look retreats a bit, enough that Wesker catches a glimpse of the young man he’d been talking to before, but it quickly returns as he says, “Yes...but he should’ve died. Would’ve been happier that way.” _

_ “The dead get little say in their lot in life. No matter what pain he might be in now, I doubt that his family and friends are going to be so upset with his continued existence. And you both made it out, whatever his condition. I need someone who can make that call.” _

_ The shuttered look raises, the young man glancing back at him with what looked strangely like...hope. _

That’s what’s making Wesker so angry. It’s the same damned look, the one before he spouted out the nonsense about screwing up, getting the discharge, then having a year’s worth of nothing on his resume. 

Curiosity had driven Wesker to look into it, and now more anger comes up as he remembers the full report he’d been able to get with the right bribes. Barry had been persuasive, Marini had been overly pushy to get a pointman, and the combat tests had only proven Chris’ worth. It was money well-spent, but the reports were so shoddy to anger Wesker easily. It was the findings for the general discharge that finally sealed Wesker’s decision to keep Chris, no matter what Irons or the others said.

Chris’ old CO had made a bad call, and blamed it on Chris. The man he’d rescued had lived, and despite everything, he’d been doing fairly well for himself...yet even he had joined with the team, having no good words for the man they all threw under the bus to hide their own sins. Instead, they’d sent him to Barry, and Wesker.

The perfect pointman, the perfect addition to S.T.A.R.S, and one of the ones Wesker had believed would be loyal enough, after pulling him in from the cold and desolate place he’d been in, to understand Wesker’s vision and direction. Instead, Chris had bit the hand that fed him, as Wesker had been warned about but not heeded, blinded by the thought of keeping his S.T.A.R.S team after X-day was done.

**_You are being foolish again, twisting your own memories and emotions into hate when they are anything but that. You are angry for the one who makes Chris Redfield appear like that for the same reason you were angry in the past - he is yours, and someone worked to hurt what is yours. If you submit to him, then he will easily allow you to do what is needed._ **

_ You have your analogies wrong. Those who protect do the taking. _

**_That is stupid._ **

_ That explains why you said it. _ Wesker watches Chris and Jill leave, offering Chris another smile when he looks back before the door closes, leaving him with only the monster. They might record his talking, but without context, Wesker finds that speaking aloud helps him put things into perspective. “Whatever your interest in him, Redfield is not worth the time. That he’s even alive is a bit of a miracle.”

**_Because he has constantly gone up and lived against you, or because your plans were to leave him dead? Whatever you might think, you are fooling yourself if you believe what you feel is hatred._ ** The monster forms a head near him, looking over at Wesker with annoyed, red eyes, reflecting Wesker’s face back. He glares at his reflected blue eyes. The red color - the sign of his inhumanity and power, of how he’d risen above the human race and their petty stupidities - has apparently gone with whatever Uroboros had to do to keep him alive. Considering the choice was either death by the viruses overwhelming his own healing ability, or allowing the monster to sustain him and, thus, ridding him of the viruses instead, Wesker will choose life, even if it requires this annoyance and the soon-to-be-dead annoyance of Chris Redfield.

“ **_You are obviously angry because you were a bad Captain. You did not take care of what is yours, and now you channel that into anger at them over yourself._ ** ”

“You seem to think you understand Humans better than I do, for something that had been caught underground for so long.”

“ **_And yet I do, and you do not. Chris Redfield requires our submission and you have not given it to him! You have also never treated him as he should be, to see you for your submission!_ ** ”

“That makes no sense, and is not how such things work!” Wesker knows he’s sputtering, but he has ever right to. One did not “submit” if they were the ones in charge!

Uroboros shifts around, moving up to be slightly above Wesker before shifting down to Wesker’s eye level and letting out what sounded like a huff of annoyance. “ **_Believe what you will. You are compatible with me, but do not understand. I will blame it on the faulty training Spencer and his men gave you._ ** ” It sounds as disgusted with things as Wesker had been, when Spencer admitted to the W project and that Wesker was, in fact, created for the purpose of simply glorifying the old, weak man. Learning it’s full extent is not exactly something he enjoys thinking about, nor is it something he likes knowing that the BSAA could know. He’d not looked into what happened to the mansion or anything Spencer left behind, hoping that Chris’ grief would make him burn the place and the body. Seeing him again and how he’s behaving, Wesker doubts he was competent enough to have destroyed it.

“We’re at least of the same mind when it comes to Spencer,” he mutters as he walks along the line of his cell, once more examining everything for the hundredth time before picking up a book to read through. There isn’t much for him to read, and he’s already worked through all of them. He picks up a biology book and sits on the bed, reading through it as his head begins to hurt again, getting him to glare as his vision briefly swims. “What are you doing?”

**_Searching your memories. Working to figure something out._ **

“Care to share with everyone else, or are you simply content with your secrecy?”

**_As content as you are._ **

Wesker huffed and put the book down, instead moving to lay down. If the thing in him was going to give him a headache, he’s going to rest up.

 

\--

 

Chris refuses to throw the phone across the room. He’s not so childish, though he  _ wants  _ to. Everything that’s happened, all the men and others who have died, and the information is just handed over to Tricell? He’s also suddenly worried about them calling Jill back for an evaluation, and sending Stone and Sheva to help the new Terrasave organization as they worked to help tried to restabilize their home.

He can’t ask them for help. Most of the others are doing their jobs, and he’s stuck babysitting Wesker and that  _ thing _ . He’s got some luck that the rest of the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium mostly agree with him, and that Tricell is the one who’s pushing everything and throwing a fucking tantrum. 

Chris let out a breath, putting the phone down and looking at his palms. He’s lucky he hadn’t hurt himself before, fearing that Wesker would say something to alert Jill. He looks back down to the monitoring area. Wesker seems to be resting, though brief flashes of pain across his face seem to suggest otherwise, and the Uroboros thing moves a bit more. It’s still looking like dark, black eels when it forms, and what research has been done on Wesker’s blood work suggests it’s “resetting” him to back when he was in STARS - before his so-called resurrection. 

Chris puts his hands on the desk, doing his best to calm down. So Wesker is possibly going to do his best to use that to his advantage too, but Chris can only hope he gets some...he just…

_ “Open this door! Redfield, I swear to--” _

_ “So where is he? Where’s Redfield?” Davis’ drunken voice carries in the building, giving Chris enough time to go and stop him, to go and talk to him, but he...he can’t. Shit, how did he even  _ find  _ him again? Did that mean the others would know? Captain Wesker was nice enough to give him a job, worthless as he is, and already Chris is fucking it up for everyone. Frozen, hiding like a child behind a tall cabinet, he just  _ listens _ while his teammates take care of it. When Wesker steps up in front of him, says his name in that neutral tone, like this isn’t isn’t fault, like… _

“Fuck.” Chris stops his train of thought, not about to think on it anymore. Davis had been drunk and got lucky in finding Chris, and luckier still when he figured out where Chris had been staying. It was sheer luck that no one ever found out, and luckier still that despite bringing something like that to STARS, they all acted like…

“FUCK.”

It wasn’t an act, not beyond Wesker. Barry cared for Claire and he like they were his own kids, had since Mom died, leaving Chris with a whole lot of work so he could get into the Air Force and get Claire with him. Brad, Speyer, Forrest, everyone hadn’t cared what happened, what Davis might say. Even Billy, when he’d been more relaxed, had believed in Chris. He had no reason to, but he had.

And that had cost him.

Chris glares back at the resting Wesker. At least he understands Wesker’s hatred over the games he’d played with Chris, back in Raccoon City. He’d believed the Captain got it, that he...Chris didn’t know, even now. But at this point, he has to figure it out or he’s going to…

“ _ Maybe if you’d spent less time running home to cry and more at work, you’d know what’s needed. _ ”

Chris lets out another breath, calming himself. He can’t let this get the better of him. He won’t. But that the BSAA  _ caved  _ and sent in  _ Sherawat  _ of all people is what gets to him. She’d betrayed them, done her best to leave them all for dead, and been a traitor to the group she’d claimed to have been working for. 

The memory of the ships gets Chris to frown, as if recalling something he didn’t quite remember hearing. He calls up a few things, grabbing books that are, overall, useful and possibly will at least keep Wesker occupied and not plotting how best to murder or infect someone, before walking back into Wesker’s room.

He doesn’t wake up, but Uroboros does, making a strange head as it looks over at him while Chris drops the books off, broken glass and steel making Chris wary before he asks, “Why do I think Abyss is like you?”

Uroboros tilts its head, as if almost curious itself, before it speaks in that gravel-voice that makes Chris’ skin crawl. “ **_During the fight, the first time I wakened, I was still working at things. You grabbed me, when Wesker and my connection was still solidifying, becoming what it is now. I saw thoughts from you and he. You may have grasped that from me._ ** ”

Chris controls the sudden need to be ill.  _ Wesker might have  _ my  _ memories. He might have access to my memories. _

“So you are related.” Chris does his best to focus on the original question.

“ **_Abyss, Plagas, and I are all the same species, though our circumstances changed us drastically. I was the eldest, and slept the longest. However, I was able to feel their deaths after I woke. Another thing I can do._ ** ”

“There’s still Plagas, and the t-Abyss virus is still out there.”

“ **_The plagues created from them are not them. They are dead - only I remain._ ** ” Chris glares at it as it watches him, as if curious, before saying, “ **_You have fought against all of them. Even the ones created by my genetic material. You’ve bested them all. That is why I don’t understand Albert Wesker’s hatred for you._ ** ”

Chris isn’t surprised to hear it. The  _ thing  _ that can read memories would know that Wesker hates him, but some part of him is almost...upset...at hearing it confirmed. Angry at himself for still being so attached to some childish fantasy, he shakes his head, turning away. “I’m sure you heard about the people coming from Tricell. I expect you to behave.”

“ **_You believe your threats from earlier will work now that I am aware of them?_ ** ”

He pauses to look at it again. “Like you said. I beat everything else. If I have to, I’ll kill you both too.”

 

\--

 

It’s host doesn’t need to know about the talk, and Uroboros is fine with putting him to a deep slumber when Chris Redfield walks in, speaking to it bluntly. The human, the one that Wesker views as ordinary, boring - if he is the boring part of the Human race, Uroboros wonders why it didn’t find and bond with someone long before this!

Though it’s host is obtuse and ignorant of it’s true reasons and motivations, Uroboros plans on changing that. The scatters of memories that it had from Chris Redfield - some align with memories that Wesker has of him, meaning it could start to bring Wesker to it’s way of thinking, by simply explaining and showing the memories to him.

Chris Redfield’s heart had pounded at the mention, and he’d also seemed unsurprised to learn that its host felt the confused knot of feelings was hatred. Biases of time aside, Uroboros would unknot things, and its host would submit to the one who had defeated them twice, and even after the week of learning more about them, was willing to try a third time.

If only the others had survived the crash, or not met such ends! Uroboros pauses in it’s musings to look back at its unruly host. Perhaps if it saw the memories from Chris Redfield’s side, learned more, then it would be simpler. He would give in, understand, and explain to Chris Redfield.

That would be hard, though. The jumble of memories tied to what had happened are as tangled as its host’s emotions that it calls ‘hate’, and it doubts that it could easily pull things out to show. Not without becoming more intertwined with its host. A risk, yes, but one that might work…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cringe lady is coming up! I swear. So is someone else from Chris' past.
> 
> ...why did I create that OC? I mean besides so Wesker could kill him?  
> No, that's the only reason, got it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry comes and totally makes everything better! The only problem in helping that along is Jessica and a figure from Chris' past.

Chris groans as he looks over the paperwork again, briefly wishing that he was better at typing but knowing that it’s not exactly the only thing bugging him. Wesker seemed to not know about anything that Uroboros and he had talked about, and for that, Chris was grateful. He knows that seeing Sherawat is going to possibly cause issues, and with everyone else gone, it’s up to him to deal with it. Granted, if Jill saw Sherawat again, even if she’d been hurt, the woman wouldn’t have made it onto Kijuju ground, or at least not very far. He assumes that’s a reason they might send someone else along.

He blinks when he opens the door and sees someone standing in front of it, right before he’s pulled into a bear hug. Barry is still in shape, and despite his age, and the solid feel of the man gets Chris to relax. “Damn, you look like shit.”

“Thanks,” Chris mutters, returning the hug before pulling back and looking over at the older man who was like a second father to him and Claire. “What’re you doing here?”

“I heard from someone you needed some help, and the BSAA might be pushovers sometimes, but you really think I’m gonna let them just leave you to deal with Wesker?”

Chris gave him a long look before Barry adds, “Look, I’m here because I owe Jill $20…”

“I swear to God if this about whatever fucking pool you all had…” Chris has an idea that there’s a pool, mostly because Rebecca had said something about it, and both Barry and Jill had made running jokes about starting up some new one. Chris had never joined in - despite his quips and everything else, he gets far too serious, far too often to be of any good at it. Whatever bets Barry and Jill had made about him, he honestly doesn’t care, so long as everyone is safe.

“If you knew, you’d not be so happy about it,” Barry warns him, walking in and taking a seat as Chris goes back to start the paperwork, only for Barry to pull it out of his hold easily. “How long do they have you playing babysitter to Wesker?”

“For however long it takes until they get the monster out of him,” Chris makes a grab at the paperwork, but Barry keps it out of his reach as Chris glares at him. “Do you know about that?”

“I got the notes on it. Wanted you to fill me in, since apparently it...what did Jill say?”

“Barry…”

“It said it’d make Wesker ‘submit’ to you.”

“Barry, that’s not funny,” he shakes his head, looking away. “I don’t know what the hell you heard, and I don’t…” another pause as Barry lowers the paper, watching him seriously before Chris rubs his hands over his face, saying tiredly, “I don’t need another monster obsessed with me.”

Barry doesn’t say anything to that, watching Chris seriously before letting out a long sigh. “I get where you’re coming from, Chris, I do. Which is why I’m going to take care of the paperwork.”

Chris glares at him briefly before smiling a bit. It was something he needed help with, though now he worries that Barry will just be the new focus for Wesker’s taunts and the Uroboros’ anger and attacks. “Some of it will require you to see him...them...and it might try to hurt you. I...don’t want that. I got Jill back...fuck, we  _ just  _ got Jill back, I can’t...I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

Barry doesn’t move the paperwork near him, but he does give him a look as he reaches out to hold Chris’ shoulder, shaking him a bit before saying, “I’ll be careful and follow your lead on this. But we need to worry about the other person coming in with Sherawat. They might have sent her in to set off someone, but they definitely sent the other guy to fuck with you.”

The news gets Chris to frown, looking up and trying to figure it out as Barry says, “I think they’re sending out your old CO with her. Last I checked, he worked for Tricell.”

 

\--

 

Wesker watches the others who come and go through the far end of the main room, Uroboros looking around through small, ruby eyes as the scientists ask a few questions. Apparently, it’s decided to cooperate after Chris came in and demanded it do so, noting that he would not always be able to help and that the scientists  _ needed  _ the information. Wesker’s protests were silenced on the basis of his earlier jabs - he would’ve wanted to learn about it himself, would have been angry and upset over what happened with Chris ‘guarding’ the prize as he was. On the plus side, it gave him others to toy with, getting rises out of when Chris wasn’t here, and for the small bits of Uroboros he  _ did  _ control to scare them.

That was something Wesker enjoyed, figuring out how much he can control at any one point of the new thing, to read the books given to him, or to taunt and coax out information from the scientists who spoke to him and studied him. He knows he can’t quite convince many of them he’s more than what they suspect, or even that helping him will ultimately aid their own work, but he does know that some of them will want to plead his case, or at least try it.

It gives him time, and he needs that time. Uroboros is being unnecessarily stubborn in it’s refusal to see Chris in any faulty light, claiming more and more that Wesker’s own memories and feelings were simply wrong. The whole of it was preposterous, and Wesker is reaching the end of his limited patience when it comes to this. Chris is worthless, flawed, and barely worth his time or efforts. Whatever Uroboros was thinking, whatever  _ obsession  _ it had about Chris…

_ The fight...you were waking, and the first thing you wake up to is me...then Chris. _

**_We saw him as our equal even before then, though. You are reaching._ **

Wesker glares at it as he sees Chris walk in, obviously aggravated about something, moving to speak quietly to the scientists over on the other side of the long room. He’s not been around for a few days, and the new agitation makes Wesker wonder what’s going on. Uroboros also seems unnaturally fascinated, watching and moving closer to the glass as Wesker attempts to keep himself occupied. Despite the distance, he can hear what Chris is saying to them.

“They’re arriving today, they’re demanding to see all of our research on Wesker and Uroboros.”

“They don’t have the right,” one scientist muttered, “Their failed virus was killing him faster than it was reinforcing whatever he thought was ‘wrong’ with him!”

_ Interesting...and obviously something Excella would hide, in the hopes of keeping me with her. _ He’s more surprised she had the gall, or that the others detected anything left of her virus. He briefly casts a glance at Uroboros, who is quiet, watching Chris like a puppy watching it’s master. Wesker barely controls a mental snort of disgust at it.

“Why are they sending anyone anyway? They betrayed us, and that Sherawat bitch shouldn’t be allowed near us.”

He knew that much, and he wonders what Chris’ connection to her is. He’ll have to ask when given the chance, if Uroboros will behave.

“I haven’t gotten the full answer yet, but there will be a briefing about it with the head scientist after they arrive.” He informs them casually before something beeps, apparently alerting him to something that only deepens the lines on his face, eyes shuttering a bit and--

_ I know that look _ .

Despite the years, Wesker finds he hates it still. He hated it because such a thing kept him from learning more about Chris, from being able to gain enough insight to possibly use against him in X-day. But seeing it here, with Uroboros trying to convince him that he has faulty memories, that only makes Wesker’s old feelings surface all the more.

“They’re coming here now,” the scientists look surprised and almost annoyed with the news as Chris waves, picking up his phone, “I’ll work on it, you all clear out for now. We don’t need any issues.”

Wesker closes the book he’s reading harshly, getting at least one scientist to jump as he smirks at them. “Do you need me to leave as well? I’m sure they’d be pleased to just see Uroboros there, instead of the man who  _ seduced  _ Excella into his services.” He’d overheard that bit, and throwing it out there might make them more cautious, but it was worth the look on their faces as a few of them blanched or shifted, realizing more about him.

Chris’ face was stony, shuttered, closed off, and Wesker’s smirk quickly turned to a frown. He knew that it wasn’t from the lack of a rise out of Chris, either - whoever was coming, they were doing  _ something  _ to upset Chris. It couldn’t be that woman he mentioned, could it? Since when did minor espionage and sabotage result in Chris’ hatred?

**_You are upset that you did much the same, and he hates you, but doesn’t hate her._ **

_ Trust me, it’s not that. He hates her, as I hate him, but this is something else entirely. _

He gets his answer when the two walk in suddenly, Jessica smiling and moving to touch Chris in an overly familiar way, right before an older man that seems vaguely familiar to Wesker walks in behind her and says, “Redfield. You still haven’t--?”

Even Wesker is surprised when a snarl issues from Uroboros at the man’s first sneered word, unable to stop or hold onto the few bits he  _ did  _ control as the Uroboros throws it’s tendrils at the window and cracks it already created, the force causing Wesker to cry out in pain as Chris drops the phone and races forward to get between in and the two others. The scientists race out as Chris yells for it to stop and telling the others to get out. Wesker vaguely hears the other man yelling something else, and pulling out a gun or something as Chris tries to get him and the woman out, grabbing the stranger and pushing him towards the exit. 

That touch only seems to anger Uroboros more, Wesker struggling for some semblance of control over his own body as the thing inside of him tears at the cage they’re in, hatred and murderous intent overwhelming Wesker’s pained senses in a way he’d never experienced before. He sees/feels one tendril manages to break past the reinforced glass, shooting out to wrap around Chris’ left arm and  _ pull _ , getting the younger man to scream in pain as others start to rush in, a familiar, red-haired man with a flame thrower and a heavy pistol among them.

_ What’s Barry doing here? _

“Wesker, let him go!” 

“It’s not him, Barry, use the flamethrower!” Wesker draws in a painful hiss as he attempts to gain some control, at least to stop from feeling like his body is being torn apart by the various points of pain from where Uroboros pulls him, or where it’s tentacles dig into glass and steel and concrete. Barry looks fearful before pulling it out, quickly using it as Uroboros began to break other areas, continuing to pull Chris back and towards the opening as it started to make it wider, glass embedding into the black tendrils as Wesker feels it all over his skin, nearly causing him to scream out again.

The flamethrower hitting the tendril and wall of the cage gets Uroboros to let Chris go, Uroboros shrieking in pain and protest as it falls back, Wesker staggering and trying to regain some balance and control, panting in shared pain. The monster and it’s tendrils lash out, breaking items in their small cell and continuing to attack the glass, seeking an alternate route to Chris. Wesker glances up, seeing the younger man panting, in pain as well, but he looks--

_ “What happened?” _

_ Chris seems to find the far wall of the emergency room a better thing to look at then Wesker. Jill and the others are just outside, waiting and as upset. Bravo team is covering for Alpha after the call came in that Chris had been in the Emergency room for a ‘brawl’. The report that Wesker had forced from Irons said a great deal of things, the main of which being that someone else started the fight, and ran the moment cops were called. _

_ “Nothing.” _

_ “You don’t end up in an Emergency room for ‘nothing’,” Wesker points out. The bruise from days ago is now covered with a new one - nearly breaking his cheek, the nurse had said - and other scrapes showed that Chris had fought back, but either been overwhelmed, or simply unable, or unwilling, to put up a fight. _

_ “It was a misunderstanding.” _

_ “One that resulted in three police cars coming to break up a brawl, according to reliable sources,” Irons was on the payroll, but Wesker and the others had asked Elliot and Marvin for details. It had not been in the favor of whoever decided to try to hospitalize his pointman. _

_ Chris is quiet, focus still on the wall, and Wesker lets out a sigh. “I can’t force you to tell me, Chris, but I am allowed to worry. You come in, obvious hurt after someone tries to force themself into our offices, and now I assume the same man, or another, tried to hurt you.” _

_ Silence, and the shuttered look that Wesker is beginning to hate. He knows that Barry hates it too - one talk and the man said it was how Chris dealt with things he felt were ‘his fault’, no matter what the circumstance. He should’ve sent Barry in to deal with this - he can’t become so attached to these little lambs for slaughter - but… _

No one hurts what’s mine _ , had gone through his head when he’d heard about it, and remembered the drunk, and Chris’ bleeding hand. _

Wesker barely manages to stand, gripping the remains of the bed frame as he does his best to gain some control, some sense of power, over the madness that Uroboros has flown into. He’s surprised when it calms, when something of his memories both enrage it but also make it seem to see what it’s doing, the danger it’s putting itself in, as Wesker struggles to figure out the few tendrils he manages control over, pulling them in so he doesn’t quite feel like he’s being ripped apart. He meets Barry’s eyes, noting the anger there, but also the obvious confusion and concern.

_ Barry always was far too understanding for his own good. _

The immediate threat and attack gone, Barry mutters to Chris, who shakes his head, obviously worried about the few others still inside. He’d just been attacked by Uroboros, but felt he was still the best man for the job.

**_Best man. OUR best man._ ** **He** **_will not be near OUR best man._ ** **He** **_will not hurt what is OURS again._ **

Wesker groaned at the strange sensation, the feel of Uroboros either digging to trying to put something in his head, but also the  _ sound  _ of it. Unlike before, it was as if Uroboros couldn’t control the words, that instead it was speaking with...ideas, colors, sounds, something that Wesker’s own mind comprehended to a point, but not enough to verbalize completely. 

_ ‘He’ who? _

He assumes it’s the other Tricell member, but what about that man? Wesker recognizes him vaguely, but not well enough to know the reason for it. He glances up and looks at Chris, angry at the obvious concern in his eyes. 

“Shouldn’t you be seeing to your little broken wing?”

The realization seems to reach Uroboros in a way words, images, or whatever else hadn’t, a strange sound coming out of it as it pulls itself into something light a tight ball, curling to hide on Wesker’s back as he breathes in, trying to work through the pain as Barry and Chris both leave. The cell is quiet, and most of the items, even the books, are trashed. Areas along his left shoulder and side are burned, aching in pain as he glares at the confined space that is now in ruins, blackened and bubbling in a way that he hasn’t felt since before the mansion. Other parts of his body and skin are cracking, blood soaking his torn shirt and pants in places, and he groans as he finds a place to sit, hoping someone will come in with...something. 

_ “Who convinced you to hire someone so useless as Redfield?” _

_ “His merits convinced me.” _

_ A derisive snort that reminds Wesker far too much of Irons. “What merits? He couldn’t dump water out of a boot of the instructions were written on the heel. You should let him go, get someone else. One of my men, Arnold Davis, he’s in the area, be a great--.” _

_ “Arnold Davis is, last I checked, behind bars for fleeing the scene of a crime and causing a riot. Both are things that Chief Irons dislikes. We may be a small town full of mostly scientists, but they enjoy their time off, and the peace that comes with having such a harsh police chief. I’m not about to hire someone already on the bad side of the police force. Let alone the man who wandered into my station  _ drunk _. Which reminds me...how  _ did  _ you find out where Redfield had moved to? And why call a gun store about his...employment?” _

_ “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He did, but he was going to play the dummy for this point. _

_ “Ah. Well, I do hope this is the last call, then. I intend to keep Redfield in my employ for as long as needed. He makes a good fit, here in S.T.A.R.S.” _

“Wesker?” Barry’s worried voice makes Wesker think he’s back in his S.T.A.R.S office, contemplating the myriad of ways that Chris Redfield defied everyone’s expectations. After dealing with Davis and his actions, the younger man had started to open up to the others, and even to Wesker himself. The difference, in his attitude and abilities, was night and day, and Wesker never regretted taking him in. 

Not until Rabbitson opened his damned mouth. Not until Redfield opened his mouth after that.

“Trying to be my sage again, Barry? I thought you learned your lesson.” He opens his eyes, seeing Barry there with a few others, most of them with items for him and at least one a doctor vetted by the BSAA. Uroboros is silent, either hurt or upset, and Wesker is not in the mood to toy with others besides Chris, not when he has an idea of who that man is now. What was Barry doing  _ here _ then? Leaving Chris alone with--

Wesker stops that line of thought. He wasn’t about to risk waking Uroboros again.

“I will not hesitate to use this on you,” Barry points out, tapping the flamethrower, “just like I didn’t hesitate to nearly shoot you at the mansion. So, is it going to play nice or will it freak out again?”

“It’s being nice now, isn’t it?”

“I’m under the impression that’s because it can read your mind and knows I will not only light you up but empty my gun into your head, even after it’s a fine jam on the pavement.”

_ Point.  _ “It’s not talking right now. I think it’s upset that Chris got hurt.” That elicits...something...from the mass on his back, and at least confirms his theory. “I’m sure you’ll convey to Lieutenant Tollemache that he is unwelcome here. Even if I did have control over Uroboros, I’m not sure I’d enjoy his company anymore than I enjoyed that phone call.”

Barry seems to consider what he said carefully before letting out a breath. “Chris isn’t gonna get help unless I’m here watching you.”

_ Of course he’s not. _

“Then they should hurry. I’m not sure how long it will remain quiet.” That’s enough of a signal for the doctor and another scientist to rush in, a few others - apparently engineers, or trained in a similar field - work to repair or reinforce the broken cell walls and reinforce the walls and glass. Wesker allows the attention, glancing at Barry as he watches over the others, flamethrower ready. Uroboros is silent through it all, as if trying to figure out something, as Wesker does his best to not hiss or show any of the pain he still feels. His left arm is still painful, even with the burn gel and other things on it to help heal, is still remarkably painful, and the various other points where the Uroboros had burst out from him, breaking skin and creating new scars that were slowly healing with whatever Uroboros and Wesker’s own viruses were doing. He spent the quiet doing his best to think around the man who’d nearly been attacked by Uroboros, as well as what it would mean for Chris. 

The new stress from the man would maybe allow Wesker to escape, but other things were coming up too. He had disliked the man before, and somehow, even after all these years, that dislike had festered into something new. Perhaps it was the memory of the one phone call, perhaps it was how the man had sounded when he walked in, perhaps both, but either way it had irked Wesker even before Uroboros had attacked him.

Chris was  _ his  _ to torment, and while he might go after a great deal of things and nearly get himself killed, Wesker was not about to let some nobody toy with him. 

Not like he had before.

_ Wait... _ the thoughts seemed far more like that of Uroboros than he, but he had yet to feel any of his mind be overruled by the monster. Right now more than ever, the monster was even more apart from him, making Wesker wonder what had prompted such a pull beyond it realizing, after the madness was over, that it had hurt not only Wesker, but also Chris.

Barry leaves the moment the scientists are done, glaring at Wesker all the way. Wesker is honestly just grateful for the quiet and for the medical help, though now the area looked more and more like a prison cell instead of the somewhat comfortable place he’d been in before. Wesker goes to bend and pick up the book on the floor, letting out a groan of pain as he did. He doesn’t like this, nor does he like what it means for Chris. 

_ Marshall Tollemache…Chris’ old CO. _

The man was an asshole, and it appeared time had not changed that. He wondered what he’d thought he was doing, going into such a dangerous situation like this. The whole thing only reinforces Wesker’s belief that Chris is not worth his time - he’s barely able to keep that man from coming here, got hurt so easily from attempting to  _ defend  _ that piece of trash, and--

Wesker staggers to his knee, panting as a low, dull headache starts to build suddenly, it feeling like his head was being split apart. He vaguely sees the shape of the Uroboros writhing near his head before he feels and sees a bit of dark blood dripping onto the floor right before--

**“There’s the fucker now.” He curses quietly under his breath when he hears the familiar voice, wishing that his only options right now weren’t the sleazy bar at the end of his street or the room he’s staying in. It’s only been three weeks with STARS, and while the paycheck is great, he’s putting most of it into savings. He doesn’t need it, Claire--**

“What are you doing?” Wesker hisses through the pain, feeling Uroboros as it attempts to dig deeper, shoving--

**He’s afraid. What is Davis doing here? If he’s here, then the Captain and the --**

“STOP,” Wesker growls out, attempting to shake it off, to get it out of his head, to stop it from--

**_You believe he’s defending him. He is not. He is afraid._ **

_ That is  _ his  _ business, not mine! _

**_I will murder Tollemache if he appears again. He is made Chris Redfield afraid by abusing the power he had over him. Even in your idiocy, you never did such a thing, which is why you still live._ **

Wesker pulls in air with a gasp, struggling to breathe through the new pain. He’d vaguely known Chris had been attacked by his old teammates, and that Tollemache had tried to use it as a reason for Wesker to hire someone else - someone who was far less credible and even less useful than some of the others that had tried to get into STARS.

But there was something else in the jumbled mess of pain and Chris’ memories that Wesker hadn’t accounted for - that Chris had been  _ targeted.  _ That the break in employment history between the military and his time with STARS, the call to the gunshop...the one that Barry knew, that Barry had told Chris to not go to and instead come in and speak to Wesker, to show off his skills. He’d not thought such a thing was possible, not with someone so useless as Chris. What, exactly, had Tollemache been plotting by making Chris miserable and nearly homeless?

**_You should have submitted to him. You would know then._ **

Wesker doesn’t answer, reaching instead to touch the wet, sticky mess of blood that’s now staining his hair. He isn’t about to answer such a stupid assertion. Allowing someone like Tollemache to have such power of him only proved how weak Chris really was, and whatever the monster was trying to do now only showed how desperate it was to maintain control. Wesker isn’t about to give in so easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, Chris apparently had a shit CO who threw him under the bus for _SAVING SOMEONE'S LIFE_ I'm going to assume that the rest of Chris' squadron were also assholes under this asshole and somehow Chris got out of it. Also there are a lot of things that imply Chris was homeless and/or jobless for at least a year before joining STARS. So...yeah.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the attack means Chris is under more stress.
> 
> Also Wesker has a wet dream from the shared memories, and Uroboros is too smug for its own good.

“So it wasn’t even dislocated, huh?” Chris doesn’t answer, since he has no reason to answer Tollemache’s questions, and since it had been confirmed by the scientists and Barry that the Uroboros had acted the way it had, even resulting in medical issues for Wesker. 

Still, the dig at Chris’ injuries is not lost on him either. The doctor has it in a sling for now because it was pretty damned close to being dislocated, and as such it’s better to be rested then just allowing Chris using it and resulting in it being worse. Not to mention that this was the third time he’d been grabbed by the  _ thing _ on Wesker, and it’s admitting to having some of Chris’ memories still makes him afraid of the day it grants Wesker access to those. He doesn’t need to see anything from Chris, and Chris would be more than happy if given the go-ahead to simply burn Uroboros out and have Wesker pay for his crimes.

“Apparently I got lucky,” Chris mutters, looking over the two. Jessica had attempted to hold onto Chris like before, but after the incident with Uroboros, she’d apparently decided to climb all over Tollemache instead. Not that the other man was complaining. The man was maybe an inch shorter than Chris, and looked like he should be a model instead of a former Air Force lieutenant. Even after the encounter, there was not a dark hair out of place on his head, and his brown eyes were looking over Chris like he was attempting to figure out if he could say something to Chris about his attitude or if Chris would actually use his good arm to strangle him. Lean in all the right ways as opposed to Chris’ bulk, the man was very much someone that a lot of people would desire to have with them, or on their side. He was also charismatic as hell, and with Jessica next to him, it was fairly obvious they’d make the type of couple that anyone would be envious of, or that they would if they didn’t know their personalities.

“I didn’t think it would go after us like that,” Jessica says, pouting as she does, “I thought so long as you were there, it wouldn’t attack anyone.”

“It’s attacked people with me in the room, and it’s part of the reason I requested you both wait to see it,” Chris tells her, anger bubbling up at her actions. It was starting to remind him of their work together, and not in a good way. “Why  _ did  _ you two decide to disobey that request? Considering the bodies we sent back to Tricell after their attempts to capture or kill him, you’d think either of you would have sense and listen.”

Jessica shifts at the accusation, getting Chris to glance at her as she rolls her eyes. “Those were part of the African branch that were trying to cover their tracks, Chris. They aren’t linked to us.”

“Doesn’t answer the question.”

Jessica’s pout turns almost cruel as Tollemache glares at Chris, as if Jessica’s bad attitude was his fault. Chris rubs his shoulder before saying, “I told your team and you that it was dangerous, and that so far the...thing...is only responding to me, no one else. When the BSAA gave you back the bodies of the people you used to try to kill or capture Wesker, you would have seen how deadly or dangerous they were.” At their lack of any sort of remorse, he begins to wonder if they even saw the reports, or if they cared. Knowing Jessica, she might have cared, but Tollemache obviously didn’t. That was a chance that Chris doesn’t like, and that makes him worry for what would happen if Uroboros allowed them near it or Wesker.

“So again,” Chris finishes, “ _ why  _ did you two disobey my request to stay out of it until I greeted you? Did you two simply have a death wish?”

“I  _ told you _ ,” Jessica says, sounding annoyed, “we--.”

“It wasn’t an answer, Jessica, and if you two are going to stay here without me sending out a very strongly worded note about how you two put a lot of people in danger, I need either you two to  _ answer the damned question _ , or to at least try to lie and try to be convincing.”

Tollemache moves in front of Jessica, trying to use his height and bulk to intimidate Chris, who remains seated and watching him with little interest before Barry speaks up. “Everything going alright here, Chris?”

“Having a civil conversation with the Tricell people, we’re all good here Barry,” Chris said, getting Jessica to glare at him in a way that promises pain if she gets her hands on him. “Wesker?”

“He’s as charming as ever,” Barry mutters, walking over to glare at the two before saying, “So, what the hell were you two thinking, coming in like you own the place? You could have gotten killed, or gotten someone else killed!”

Jessica tries to argue as Chris stands, glaring at Tollemache as he tries to keep him sitting. “I have a few things to do. Are you two going to answer the questions or not?”

“We don’t owe you an explanation of  _ our job _ , Redfield. You can’t control that bastard Wesker, and you certainly can’t keep anyone  _ safe _ .” the last word was sneered out as he looked at Chris’ hurt shoulder. “You couldn’t even keep our men from being killed by that beast - men that were there on orders to help the BSAA.”

“Funny, none of them seemed keen on helping us out,” Chris said, getting Tollemache to glare as Barry makes sure to step between Jessica and the two, effectively stopping her from interfering. “In fact, they were so keen on not helping us out that they tried to get after Wesker and nearly allowed him to escape, with the Red Queen files. It’s sheer dumb luck they managed to not be eaten by the thing attached to him and we were able to identify them and give their family’s closure. But if you want to believe what you said, that doesn’t matter.” He walks away, shaking his head. “Barry, escort our guests to their rooms and make sure they stay there. I have things to do.”

“You don’t,” Jessica sneered at him, getting Barry to glare at the two. “Your orders were--.”

“Jessica, we worked one mission together. You barely knew our orders then, and didn’t even come prepared for it. What makes you think you can tell me what my orders are?”

The woman glares at him as he walks out, managing to keep his stoic face before he lets out a long sigh of defeat, running a hand through his hair.

Damnit. He should have been prepared for this, but how could he have known the monster had  _ those  _ memories? Now it’s grabbed him again, how likely would it be that it had more? Chris slowly travels towards the area where the scientists are, wincing when his shoulder is briefly jostled and pain flares through it again. He’s lucky that Tollemache didn’t decide to grab it at any time. The man often used small tactics like that, and Chris supposed it was because he’d known how to handle such people like Tollemache, that despite his attempts at a different type of pain, Chris could still see through his bullshit, after that first break from the honeymoon period.

_ Does Jessica know? _

The thought gets Chris to stop, his old loyalties flaring almost as much as it once had, when he saw Wesker before the attack on the Russian complex, where he and Jill had fought the beefed-up Tyrant controlled by the mad Russian Sergei Vladimir and the Red Queen AI, before it’s destruction - “lobotomy” he remembers Quinn had mentioned after taking a look at the files, “if the AI was a human, the term would be fuckin’ lobotomy” - but he’d only just learned the man was alive, transformed, working for a new pharmaceutical company of evil insane people, and one of those evil, insane people. His feelings towards him had morphed into rage over the years, and after Jill’s death it had turned into hate and determination, but after seeing what happened when the Uroboros took control without consent, when he saw the pain and what Wesker had suffered because...because the thing had…

Chris stopped his train of thoughts as he finds himself at the entrance to where Wesker was held. He’s not sure why he’s here when he was trying to get to the science lab, but…

He moves inside slowly, looking in briefly to see that Wesker doesn’t seem to notice him. Chris blinks when he notices dried blood along his face, some part of him afraid for what that might mean. He’d not gotten a chance to talk to Barry yet about how Wesker had acted, or Uroboros, and some part of Chris was upset that he’d try to hide from the bastard like he had when he’d been a rookie in STARS. He’d not even done a good job of it, he’s sure, considering how everyone had treated him after the one attack, but with how Uroboros went for Tollemache, this could be a problem no matter what else happens. He needs to talk to them. 

Wesker frowns when he sees Chris’ shoulder, walking up and looking between him and the shoulder before saying, “So, that was your old CO?”

“You didn’t know?”

“I only spoke to him over the phone, after he sent his men to attack you.” Chris glances away at that mention. “He tried to pawn the one who wandered in drunk on me.” Wesker snorts. “I assume he’s learned his lesson?”

Chris’ silence apparently speaks volumes, as he sees Wesker make a face before crossing his arms. At least one is bandaged up and appears to have been burnt, and Wesker seems as angry with his own wounds as Chris is with his. “Uroboros will kill him next time. I cannot change its mind, and I doubt you will either. The moment he comes in, it will do what it can to kill him before you get him out the door again.”

Chris lets out a breath and pinches the bridge of his nose. “I guessed that from it’s display. I’d rather it not try that. The man might be a bastard, but he doesn’t--.” A sudden slamming and hiss of pain stops Chris from talking, turn as he sees Uroboros on the fixed panes of glass and other areas, Wesker trying to hold it in and grimacing in pain as the monster shifts and turns. Chris glares it down, his shoulder visible. Despite its lack of solid form, he sees it flinch as Chris growls out, “If you have another fucking tantrum like that I will light up what I can of  _ you _ and not Wesker, got me?”

That appears to placate the thing, as it moves slowly back while Wesker glares at him, probably angry at being put through such a thing again by Chris. The Uroboros forms a mouth nearby, speaking deeply from near Wesker as the two red eyes appear, like glowing rubies.

“ **_He will not come near Our Pointman. He will not do anything to you again. We will end his life for you. You will not need defend him again._ ** ”

“I’m not defending him, I’m protecting you!” Chris growls out, angry, “The only reason you two are even alive is because you’ll listen to me, so  _ listen! _ ”

Wesker looks almost surprised for a second, and Uroboros briefly looks almost...smug. Chris lets out a breath and shakes his head. “He’s going to keep trying until he gets in, gets killed, and Tricell can use it to try to blame it on us. That means  _ they  _ get you two, not the BSAA, and I doubt they’re happy with Wesker as it is.” He glares at Wesker, who’s looking at him with a curious look on his face. “You dying at the hands of some new company you were willing to sell your soul to won’t help some of the people you hurt.” His eyes track up to the smug Uroboros. “The minute we can split you from Wesker, I’m gonna light you up myself.”

Uroboros shifts, as if uncertain, as Chris turns to walk out the door. He stops when the monster speaks.

“ **_Tollemache will die if he enters here...unless you tell Wesker._ ** ”

Chris is quiet, waiting. Whatever it wants, he’s not going to rise to it’s bait.

“ **_Tell him about Lawrence._ ** ”

Chris spins and stalks forward, shaking in rage. “I will drag you back to that volcano myself and put a rocket up both your asses if you try that again, got me?”

Uroboros growls, unhappy, as Wesker watches, as if ready for another ‘tantrum’ from Uroboros. “ **_Then you’ll have to keep defending the man, but I will not stop from murdering him and anyone in my way. You, I can fix. Wesker, I can fix. Anyone else...will simply pull a little too hard on Wesker. And then you will not get what you want, will you? Tell him._ ** ”

Chris storms out of the room, not about to give in to that sick monster’s demands. He needs...he…

Chris pulls in breaths, doing his best to calm himself down. He can’t break apart now. He won’t. He can do this. He just needs to finish this, and he’ll have enough time to take his break, and then get back out there.

\--

Wesker watches Chris storm off, feeling a sudden spike of annoyance at the smug Uroboros and it’s actions. “You seem to believe you can get a few things from him simply by playing ‘dirty’. It’s not going to work. If anything, he hates you more now.”

Uroboros’ smug feeling seemed to briefly fade before it tries to recover, but Wesker isn’t about to let that happen. “ _ If  _ you were so sure about my memories, you’d know that he’s not about to tell anyone what happened in Lawrence. Even if you know, he’s not going to open about it later.”

He waits for what he suspects anyone else would have said, something like “Don’t you mean open up about  _ him? _ ” as if waiting for some theme to play or surprise revelation to come up. He gets little, not even a headache, as Uroboros slowly moves, bits of it sliding back against Wesker. “ **_You know._ ** ”

“I suspect, though Chris’ various reactions have made the suspicions more solidified over time. I don’t need to know what happened, unless I wanted to use it against him.” He grimaces at the pain in his head, glaring at the remains of Uroboros before the headache stops abruptly, and he hears the monster hum in his head.

**_I see...it is said, though. It is up to Chris, or you. He will tell, or you will submit to him._ **

_ I’m beginning to think I should have thrown us in lava, after the first time you called him ‘perfect’. _

Uroboros growls at him but falls silent, leaving Wesker to clean up a bit more of the cell and pick up one of the books Chris had brought after he’d finished the others. Many of them were ones he’d not read, and covered all of his interests. He’s a bit surprised that, consciously or not, Chris had gotten something that Wesker would enjoy reading. It’s not the reports on himself or Uroboros, but it keeps Wesker occupied when he’s not trying to formulate a plan to escape, or debating on how easily he could have escaped if he’d had complete control over Uroboros. He lays down on the mattress, moved to the floor after the broken frame had been taken out, and reads a bit of the book before he slowly nods off, eyes closing as he manages to mark his place and put it away before closing his eyes again.

_ Wesker looks over at Chris as he enters the office, closing the door behind him and looking almost afraid as he looks away. It had been only a few weeks since the attack, and like before, Chris had been quiet and not at all defiant until recently. Jill and Frost had brought up the idea that he needed...something...and Wesker needed Chris at his best. _

_ What was the point of having the best Pointman if Chris was not up to snuff? _

**Wesker’s looking at his work, focus barely on the man who’s so far ruined his team in such a short time. He’d thought he’d managed to get away from Tollemache and the others, but Davis’ appearance, the weeks of silence, and now the medical leave because he’d been stupid enough to get jumped? What did that say about his future in STARS?**

**_Wesker looks up at Chris, worried and afraid, before the man slowly stands up, walking around his desk._ **

_ “Chris,” Wesker’s voice is soft, quiet, like he’s trying to calm an animal, “Are you alright? You should still--” “I’d like to resign, sir.” _

**“Denied.” the simple word jolts Chris back to the present, eyes meeting the cool ones hidden behind dark sunglasses. “You’re not resigning because someone decided to attack you over something unrelated to this.”**

**Chris can’t quite believe it, wants to look away, but even with the glasses on, the blue eyes are clear behind the sunglasses,** _ Chris’ eyes as shocked, in a way that he dislikes, and Wesker reaches out his hand to Chris’ arm. _

**_“You’re_ ** **_my_ ** **_Pointman, Chris. You no longer belong to the idiots who’d waste your abilities and talents for their own foolishness. You are part of STARS now, the Pointman to Alpha team of Raccoon City. The only person I trust to have my back in this. I will not have anyone attacking you for no other reason than your last CO was a massive ass who can’t accept when he’s made a bad call.”_ **

**Wesker speaks with such confidence,** _ Chris’ shuttered eyes from the first day disappear completely, or so Wesker hopes, and there’s a  _ **_sudden need to kiss, to lean in and simply explore the other’s mouth with their tongue, pull the other man in close._ **

**_Wesker’s arm goes from Chris’ own to around his waist, pulling his Pointman in as close as he can. The younger man’s eyes widen in shock as Wesker leans in, lips brushing close, testing before claiming what’s his._ **

**_Wesker hums at the taste, arms going around Chris’ waist as he deepens the kiss with the younger man, tasting him as they stumble back and fall onto the couch behind, Wesker ending up on the bottom as he puts one leg around Chris’ own, pulling the younger man in closer and feeling his hardened erection against his own growing one. Wesker all but drinks in the moan that Chris gives off as he sits up, lightly nipping his lip as he moves back, scene feeling like it’s shifted._ **

**_He’s older, his hair darker from years in the sun, but he’s still his Pointman, his Chris,_ ** **his** **_, and no one will take him from Wesker. Wesker moves quickly, shifting so their cock align, rubbing along as Chris lets out gasps and moans against him, hand going between them to fist both their cocks and pull, slick still from lube and the need. He feels Chris’ other hand move down, finger slowly tracing his entrance before pushing in, Wesker letting out a hiss before--_ **

Wesker groggily wakes up, glaring at his tented pants and the smug feel from Uroboros making him glare around it. His head hurts as well, and he almost wants to ask about the odd mix of memories, the feelings...Chris had apparently felt the same way he had back then, but what was the purpose of him knowing that? Chris had proven himself to be useless and unwilling to understand anything, and with all the rest, what else would Wesker need to prove to Uroboros the uselessness of the man? He’d admitted to being willing to put himself on the line for a man who’d ruined his life.

Wesker turns over onto his side, hoping that ignoring his raging erection will make it go away.

\--

Marshall Tollemache lets out a sigh as he looks around the room he and Jessica will share. It’s barely considered a good hotel room, and if anything, this only pissed him off even more at Redfield. The man had already given him issues back when he was in Tollemache’s squadron, and now he’s here, causing even more trouble, and with the bastard who’d even allowed Redfield to have something like a chance.

A chance he didn’t deserve. Because of him, everyone else’s career was stalled. Tollemache’s time as an officer was called into question, all because of this one dumbass and his views on  _ loyalty _ .

“He bulked up since I last saw him,” Jessica said nonchalantly, with an annoyed look on her face as she finishes her inspection of the room. “He’s nowhere near as cute either.”

“I forget you were trying for him while you worked in the BSAA,” Tollemache mentions, glancing at Jessica with a smile. “Pity he didn’t get a chance to have you.”

He watches the woman shrugs, stretching and allowing her body to be open for him to admire while she turns a bit to each side before saying, “So, how do you want to do this?”

“Well, from what we’ve seen, the thing isn’t going to let  _ me  _ near it,” he walks over, slowly moving a hand down Jessica’s side. She doesn’t move as he does this, which is good, and though she appears a bit surprised by the touch, she obviously isn’t afraid or moving away from it either. That’s very good, important that despite everything, she trusts him at least in this.

That he can work with.

“I’m sure you’d like a crack at Redfield again.”

She hummed as she moved her hand down. Her grip is tight, and makes him reconsider his next move. “Jealous?”

He snorts. “Redfield isn’t worth my time anymore. He had his chance and blew it, like all of the other relationships that could have made him great. I’ll work on the lab and the rest. If anything, getting the information will help us when we finally gain Uroboros and Wesker.”

Tollemache enjoys watching Jessica turn and smile at him, enjoying the feel of her body in his hands. He’s not sure what her plans are, but whatever it is, he’s sure he’ll be happy with the results, and so will the company. Taking care of the problem and danger that is Albert Wesker, not to mention dealing with Chris Redfield, will only end up making everything better for Tricell, and for everyone else. But Tollemache would be remiss if he didn’t admit, at least to himself, that riding the world of Chris Redfield, once and for all, would be a wonderful thing to finally witness or be a part of himself. He doesn’t want that man and the reminder of that time alive any longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why, Jessica from Revelations is just SO DAMNED CRINGE and I can't stop writing her in! She's fun! In a horrible way, but still so much fun.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris starts to feel more and more pressure with the presence of Tollemache, and Wesker rethinks his general actions against Chris when he sees some more memories.

Between his hurt shoulder, dealing with Tollemache and Jessica again, and the demand from Uroboros and Wesker, it’s not surprising that Chris finds himself unable to sleep well for the next three days. He’s trying very hard to keep himself together, to not give Tollemache or Wesker the satisfaction of hurting or causing anyone else trouble. 

He just wants some time to...he just…

Chris stops his thoughts, though they still swirl around to remind him of the last few days. After Uroboros’ attack and ultimatum, Chris had spent the bare minimum of time in the room, something that had apparently emboldened Wesker, if his increased verbal attacks and jeers from the ruined cell was anything to go on. He’d taken a great deal of pleasure when Jessica came in, two days ago, joining in the taunts about Chris’ inability to keep a girlfriend, let alone any friend, safe from his issues or his pastwork. Chris wondered if Tollemache mentioned anything to Jessica about his time in the Air Force with Chris, but so far he doesn’t see any signs of that. Then again, Jessica has her own reasons to not like Chris, and he’s fine with them. She made that bed and she’ll lie in it.

He’s surprised that he’s so upset over Wesker taking glee and joining in her assessments of him, as if he’s trying to prove something to someone. Chris isn’t sure who, since Wesker believes himself above humanity and anyone. He can’t think of a reason for it, besides reminding Chris again of how much he hates Chris, and how well he knows him, from when Chris was stupid enough to trust him. 

Of course, with the surprise is disgust at himself for that surprise. Why should he care who Wesker finds interesting, and why allow that to bother him? The man betrayed Chris, betrayed STARS and the whole of the human race. Jessica betrayed him and the BSAA when she went to work for Tricell. Tollemache...the less said about that breach, the better. But it still annoyed him that his mind is so caught up in such a thing.

Chris sighs as he sits, looking at the reports he’d had to move to his room after the two from Tricell had come in. His mind continues along the same lines as before when it sees Sheva’s name in one report about Tollemache’s movements and harassment of the BSAA scientists. Barry had gone behind his back to call in Sheva to help out shortly after Uroboros had attacked the two, and while Chris is grateful for the help, he also is annoyed Barry thought that Chris needed that help to begin with. He’d thought he’d been able to keep it a secret, that Barry hadn’t noticed how frayed at the edges Chris was getting, but apparently he hadn’t managed that either. Instead, he’d called in Sheva, who’d taken one look at him and sided with Barry on trying to lower his workload. Chris had tried to argue, but Sheva had threatened to call in Jill, which...even Barry wasn’t that evil.

Chris had caved in the hopes of allowing Jill time to recover, to get back to a routine, and to make sure she was ok and not still hurt by anything that madman had done to her. Calling her in would only open up wounds that needed to heal, ones that Chris was fine with bearing the brunt of, if it meant he could keep her and others safe.

He’s really not surprised Jessica gravitated towards Wesker, not with her apparent record of the type of men she wanted, but he’s more surprised Wesker is falling for it. Something about it angers him, as if seeing it only confirms that he was wrong about the man, that a pretty girl was what he’d always wanted, and not--

_ Stop. _

Chris pinches the bridge of his nose, silently grateful Jill is getting the help she needs so she can be cleared for duty, though he wishes that he could get some time off. But with how everything is going, he doubts he’ll have that luxury. There are new recruits to train, whispers of other stuff about to go down in Asia and Eastern Europe, the terrorist groups and radicals gaining enough money to buy up leftover bioweapons, and companies like Tricell willing to spend the money to give it to them. But add to that Wesker being the only host of some ancient, thinking disease? Chris is amazed that there hasn’t been  _ more  _ attempts to get him out, or to get samples for later use. He’s just lucky that the mass of virus thinks  _ he’s  _ something of use, and even more lucky that it hasn’t decided that isn’t the case anymore, not without the life or death scenarios for Chris to go through.

He just...needs that time alone. At this point he’ll take an hour, even two, if it means he’s  _ alone _ .

_ “Open this door-- _ ”

The loud banging against his door, a bit too hard to be cordial, brings Chris back from his memories and thoughts, making him glare at it before going over to open it, frowning when he sees Tollemache on the other side.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Tollemache asks, arms crossed and a look that Chris remembers from years ago. Chris glares at him before pushing out, moving past Tollemache and into the hallway, the door locking behind him as he leaves. The surprise gets him only a few feet, though, before Tollemache recovers enough to start up again.

“The hell is wrong with you today, Redfield?” Tollemache asks, moving forward to block Chris’ way. Chris stops, waiting for whatever else the man wanted to ask. He doubts it’s anything beyond simply trying to insult him all the more. Chris is getting enough of that from everyone else. “I asked you a simple question.”

“And you’re not allowed in any rooms that aren’t deemed necessary to your investigation and that you aren’t cleared for. Which includes my room.” He’s tempted to ask if Tollemache didn’t get the memo, but he’s also not in the mood for any petty squabbling or attitude the man will bring if he upsets him. “What did you want?”

“So we’re going to talk about secret stuff in the open?”

“This base is composed of secret-level clearance scientists and others, all working with the BSAA and pharmaceutical consortium to learn more about Uroboros and Plagas so we can come up with vaccines and ways of helping those affected by this last outbreak. So we can easily talk about whatever we want in regards to Uroboros and the altered Plagas. Or are you here to talk about something else?” Chris waits as Tollemache glares at him, not saying anything, before he adds, “I have to go and do some work over with Wesker and the Uroboros.”

“You have a reason for always going over to talk with that bastard and the mass of goo?” Tollemache gave him a smirk. “I heard you’ve not been letting the scientists get all the samples they need from it.”

“I’m sure they also mentioned how dangerous it was to take the samples,” he notes, recalling the times that Wesker and Uroboros had tries to burst through and get to the scientists, only stopped by Chris. That hadn’t worked for Tollemache, the fractures instead allowing it to nearly get him. Chris might dislike the man for all their past together, but he didn’t want him dead at the hands of Uroboros or Wesker.

Tollemache waved it off. “You claim to have some hold on the monster, but you obviously don’t hold sway over either. The man’s obviously waiting for a chance to kill you and put us all out of our misery.”

Chris didn’t bother to take the bait, instead raising his eyebrows at Tollemache in a manner that shows how unimpressed he is by the insult. “If you’re done, Tollemache, I have work to do and other reports to check up on.” He mentally notes the lack of a guard with Tollemache, and wonders if they got lost or something more sinister occurred. He hopes it’s just the first - he might take some happiness of confining them to their quarters, but the knowledge someone got hurt for it to happen doesn’t sit well for him.

Tollemache grabs Chris’ wounded arm at his bicep, pulling hard enough that the pain flares up again. Though it’s not in the sling anymore, it’s still not up to par, and Chris stops more to keep from getting hurt further, over because of the hold Tollemache has on him. It doesn’t stop the same smirk he’d always had, back when he’d  _ had  _ power over Chris, from briefly returning before his look became serious.

“I don’t know where this attitude came from, Redfield, but you’d better drop it and quick. We’re here to deal with a problem you didn’t take care of when you had the chance. Or do you think I don’t know about your past with your dear second Captain?” Chris glances at Tollemache, waiting and annoyed at the delay. He should just suck it up and push through the pain, but he also has to wear knee protective gear  _ because  _ of pushing himself like he had to try to impress Tollemache and the others.

“Whatever you’re here for, it doesn’t stop that I have work to do, and you’re currently taking up too much of my time without asking or answering any questions. So, let go and let me go and work. I don’t answer to  _ you  _ either, Tollemache.”

Tollemache’s anger was the same as before, making him twist Chris around painfully before a voice said, “Freeze!” 

“You gonna have your subordinates save you?” Tollemache hissed, though he stopped the moment the word was yelled from the guards coming in.

“Let Captain Redfield go, Mr. Tollemache,” the stern demand was instantly followed, Chris not bothering to point out that for all Tollemache’s bluster, he at least knew the man was not going to let this slide either. Minute he could get Chris alone, there was going to be hell to pay.

\--

Wesker was beginning to hope that Uroboros would at least see that Chris’ former taste in women would be a reason for him to be disdained. Jessica Sherawat was, in many ways, simply far worse than Excella had ever been, and Wesker had done his best to use her. She’d managed to get him with the serum Tricell had made for his particular virus, and her pitiful cries after he’d injected her with the sample of Uroboros had been annoying until they were gone.

She’d failed at her final task, but then again, he’d not been surprised by that. He’s more annoyed by Jessica Sherawat and her actions, but the pained looks that cross Chris’ face only serve to encourage him in a way...he needed something to take off the near-nightly ‘dreams’ that the monster gave him, of how ‘submitting’ would be good for him, of his supposed ‘failures’ to ‘protect’ Chris. It helped that the reminder of Chris’ weakness and Uroboros’ own anger had resulted in the monster being silent for most of the days since.

Wesker glances at the door, annoyance suddenly rising. Chris is late, and as such it’s derailing Wesker’s plans and thoughts. The man has been like clockwork since Tricell’s men waltzed in, but now Chris is late when, if given a schedule, he’s  _ always  _ on time. It irks him that Chris  _ isn’t  _ here, because now he must mention  _ that _ , but there isn’t much he can go with. 

Chris is never late, and some part of Wesker is now even more worried because of that. Had Tollemache or someone given him trouble? Was he simply working at something else and left Wesker here with only the monstrous Uroboros for company? Chris not being here meant that it was far more likely that he was simply --

The door opens as Chris and the scientists walk in, Jessica stepping in behind them with a slightly annoyed look as she sauntered over to near his cage. “It’s not my fault you can’t keep time and won’t speak to us about what’s going on, Chris.”

Chris is quiet at the accusations, instead motioning as the scientists begin their work while Jessica rolls her eyes in disgust.

“So why are you late, then? If it’s not my fault, why are you acting like it is?”

Wesker barely stops himself from glaring at the woman and her tone that grates on his ears. He’s more amazed that Chris hasn’t thrown her or Tollemache out.

“Why  _ are  _ you late? I was beginning to think I’m yesterday’s news, Chris,” Wesker drawls out, getting Chris’ attention as Jessica continues her pout. 

Chris glares at them both before saying, “Someone’s questions took up a bit too much of my free time.”

“You always do have the worst timing,” Wesker says, stalking around his cell, his agitation starting to get to him. Why did he care if Chris was dodging the question, if he was late here? What did it  _ matter  _ to him? If anything, it only showed how much Chris was failing in his age, how the constant work and stress was making him sloppy and stereotypically  _ boring _ . It meant he was  _ less than  _ Wesker, who would have allowed the men coming in their mistake and deaths before telling Tricell to simply fall like Umbrella had. Instead, he was doing what he always did, asking for others to do his work, speaking to people he shouldn’t and getting himself into dangers that he never should have wandered into in the first place, and leaving better people to fix the problem for him!

_ “Oh...oh god, how...how did you…?” Bill Rabbitson lived up to his name, scared of his own shadows and obviously scared of Wesker as he waits for him near the old diner he’d told Chris about. Wesker glares at him, standing easily and grabbing his hand, pulling him away. No one in the diner notices, or if they do, they certainly don’t care. _

_ “You don’t think I don’t have their phones bugged? Or did you really think I wouldn’t notice the connection, Bill?” he says the man’s name with disdain - he’d always disliked the man and his research had been shoddy, marked with failings as he continually allowed for fatal slip-ups. The issues with the plants all over the damned mansion, often outgrowing their confines, were this man’s fault, and already Birkin had bitched at him about Plant 42 and it’s faults. _

_ “I...he already knows! He knows, I...I was supposed to test...to test your men, and I know Redfield, I do! He’ll be here any...any minute, you can see for yourself, Albert. Just...just wait, you’ll...he knows, I was testing him and--.” _

“Last time you were late to a meeting, that was when your friend, Rabbitson, wasn’t it? How well did that turn out?”

He sees Chris suddenly tense at the mention of the man from years ago, Jessica looking over at Wesker curiously. “Oh...who is the person Chris stood up?”

He debates on telling her, smirking as he sees how tense Chris is, how upset he is, how he’s not even looking at them half the time, body tilted away but not far enough to not hear what’s being said. 

_ This is far better than what I’d planned. _

“An old friend of his who worked for Umbrella. They both worked as my underlings, though at least Rabbitson got his work done.” That was a lie, brought on by his anger from the random snippet of memory, the feelings that Chris had once felt for that useless man who’d been ready to give him up if it meant saving his own hide. He’d been ready to drag Chris into danger, been willing to lie to Wesker in the hopes of saving his own skin, and…

“ _ Testing him? Really?” _

_ “Yes!” the possibility of an exit only seems to excite Rabbitson more as he looks around, “Yes, I...was told to test one of the S.T.A.R.S team members about...about things. He’s coming here so...so he can ask me more about what he knows. It’s a test! It’s too crazy to believe, isn’t it?” he’s continually so nervous as he shifts, as if trying to figure out what Wesker will believe him. “You...you can’t trust him over me, can you? He...he’ll spill it. I know him. If he thinks you’re doing something wrong, he’ll go against you. He’s gonna betray you, Albert, that’s why I  _ had  _ to test him!” Rabbitson sounded so odd, like the he’s not quite sure if his lies would work. _

_ “Bill...I did listen in to what you told Chris over the course of that call. I know you didn’t tell him everything,” his fist easily connects with the man’s face, sending his head all but spiralling around before he falls, Wesker grabbing him and hitting in once more to ensure the coward is out. He pauses as he holds Rabbitson up, hearing a familiar sound of a motorcycle pull up to near the diner, apparently worried from how quickly he heard it shut off, falling over as it’s owner jumped down. _

**No one is around, and he doesn’t see any sign of anyone else coming here. Everyone he talks to hasn’t seen him.**

**Chris shifts, feeling a sudden nervousness in him, tension rising as his paranoia takes hold. He can tell Captain Wesker. He has to. The captain will know what to do in this case, won’t he? Billy wouldn’t just disappear like this.**

**_There’s something there, something wrong, but then he sees the men coming in, one after another._ **

_ Wesker watches as someone else stumbles out, another man following behind a few minutes later, adjusting himself as discreetly as possible. If they see him, they certainly don’t mention it as he moves to put Bill’s arm around his shoulder and carry him off, moving deliberately to keep out of Chris’ line of sight.  _

**Chris blushes as he realizes where he is, and moves back to his bike. He sets it up, waiting, not sure what else he can do. Should he call the cops? Should he call Billy again? He had some change, but if he’s supposed to be here, what was the point of calling his phone? He had to call the Captain then, or maybe Jill...but this is their night off, he can’t bother them for something so silly like this.**

“So what happened?” Jessica asks, almost curious, glancing at Chris. Wesker sees how tense he is, his own head swimming from the strange mixed memories. He’s getting annoyed that much of it is obviously from Uroboros, but he hates the disassociation he feels of it, moving between his own memories and Chris’ of the situation, to see how pitiful the man is, how unwilling he is to get help for any situation.

“Chris ended up calling the police on the matter. The chief was on our payroll, and the man had already been taken care of.” He sees Chris’ fingers flex, unconsciously moving to make a fist. “I didn’t hear where he ended up, but he was back in the mansion, and stayed there from the time I dropped him off to the time we went in.”

_ Wesker glares out as he sees Chris pacing, obviously upset and glancing at the payphone nearby multiple times. Rabbitson’s body is heavy against him, silent, and now Wesker wishes he’d simply broken the man’s neck instead of knocking him out. Still, the others want Bill back, and they’ll get him back. _

_ He puts Bill into his own car, silently cursing how this will end up. Irons already has issues with Chris, and this will only add to his annoyance at the young man. Something Wesker didn’t need while he made sure his people were trained and ready for X-Day. Something he’ll have to talk to William about, the moment he can, about maybe seeing if the fat man can’t be ‘replaced’ by someone a bit more sober, a bit less homicidal. If anything, Wesker could always mention Iron’s design on the mayor’s sweet daughter, and get him ousted for  _ that _. _

_ However, it might mean moving up the system - moving in a way that Umbrella hadn’t approved. Weighing his options of escape from the company, Wesker knew it was far better he remained where he was. It also worried him that he had no idea what had finally made Bill bolt the way he had, or if what he was saying was true. If they decided to test one of his men, and that had been his so-called “best man”. _

_ They’re nearly to the checkpoint when Rabbitson stirs, muttering Chris’ name in such a tone that it makes Wesker go white-knuckled in fury. Chris was  _ his  _ pointman,  _ his  _ little piggy to play with. How  _ dare  _ this man try such a tactic on  _ his  _ man?  _

_ How dare he ruin  _ Wesker’s  _ plans? _

“Who knows what happened to him? By a week in, things were already starting to fall apart there. It’s probably how Bill got out in the first place. What he went back in to...well…” Wesker smirks as Chris remains turned away from them. Jessica looks positively  _ glowing  _ with this new bit of information to use against Chris - how, he’s not sure - as Wesker does his best to not allow his headache from the weird jumble of memories to overtake him or appear too pronounced. Chris is becoming far more withdrawn, and that normally means that he’ll make a mistake soon. Soon enough that Wesker can take advantage of it and get himself out of this lab and out of the BSAA’s clutches.

Killing Chris would have to come after he’d gained control over Uroboros. He’s sure that the rest could easily be killed between now and then.

Uroboros shifts within him, upset over something, and Wesker’s already sour mood goes blacker. He insults everyone he can, making sure to praise and even flirt with Jessica half-heartedly as Chris stays far away, seeming to work but his obvious upset over the news of Rabbitson’s fate making it hard to concentrate. Wesker almost wishes he’d kept a better eye on him while he was coming after them around Kijuju, to see if Jill’s absence had affected him as much as her reveal had. He’d had yet to reveal what he knew of Jill’s funeral, or all he’d done to her while she was being conditioned for the P30. It was not a lot - the P30s control was far too absolute to allow for much beyond ensuring she carried out her orders, and despite Jill’s nature at times, she was very good at that. 

Chris...he’d probably have had to use the conditioning programs, far more than anyone else, just to allow the plan to get through his skull. It’s really not surprising that he’s only allowed operations with one person, or to travel with a group but not be part of them for a short period of time. He glances at Jessica curiously before asking, “Tell me, in your short time with Chris, was he any good with teams? I’ve...heard rumors...that his time away from good discipline has made him harder and harder to work with.”

Jessica smirks, though Wesker also notices a few of the men nearby seem to take offense to his question. Whatever else, Chris gains their loyalty quickly, though from Jessica’s will to betray him, he loses it as quickly as it’s gained. 

“He’s never been good in teams. I mean, they  _ say  _ he’s good, probably to stroke his ego, but he’s really not. He’s barely useful in a team - I had to save him a few times because of his mess-ups, but then again, his dear  _ Jill  _ was in trouble.” The way she said it grated on Wesker’s nerves - even while fighting the influence of the P30, Jill was ten times the woman this one was. “He was such an ass too. ‘Trust is built through actions, not words’.”

_ “You need to understand, Chris, that trust is built through actions, not words,” Wesker told him as he helped him up. The combat training had been tough - for someone who had lost to a group of men and only recently been cleared for training, Chris was already excelling. It was no wonder he favored a combat knife over a pistol, though Wesker still made him carry one on their missions. _

**Chris does his best to not blush at the unearned praise from Captain Wesker. He’d already failed this man, he doesn’t get the need for such a talk. Maybe it’s all show.**

“Always about the job, never about anything else, not unless Jill was involved.”

_ “Sounds like something you’d say,” Jill said from nearby, having finished her own sparring match and, apparently, won. “Always on the job, eh Captain?” She holds out a hand to get some money from Richard, who somehow looks almost annoyed with them both. Chris is apparently as confused as he is, since Wesker simply says, “The job is the job, Valentine. Trust is something else entirely.” _

**_“I know_ ** **that** **_.” Jill said with a chuckle, “It’s just weird to hear it from_ ** **you** **_, Wesker, knowing we’ll hear it from Chris one day._ ** **”**

“He couldn’t take the hint, even when I threw myself into his arms. How pathetic, but then, it’s always about Jill, when it’s not about the job.” He wonders if she realizes how much she’s letting it be known that she still wants Chris, that despite her betrayal and work with Tricell, she wanted simply to say she’d screwed Chris Redfield.

“I’d say you got off easily,” Wesker tells her, smirking a bit, “if he’d found out about your true loyalties, he’d have tried to lecture you about all the people you’d betrayed.”

She makes a face as Wesker leans back, resting on his bed. “It’s nothing you wouldn’t hear from anyone else. I’m sure he was simply upset that I shot Marini when the man wrongfully assumed  _ he  _ was the traitor. You’d have thought he’d be a bit more grateful.”

_ He didn’t need Chris dead now...not for something so stupid as mistaken identity. But Marini’s growl, his hard tone, the gun gleaming even in the dark as Wesker took aim himself and Chris tried to figure out what was wrong-- _

**Chris is frozen, unable to defend himself. The word only pulls at old wounds, and he’s not! He isn’t! He didn’t know--**

**“Ungrateful, traitorous bastard!” a man’s blue eyes loom over him as Claire cries, shielded from the man, before the hand with the half-drunk bottle is raised again…**

“Are you alright, Albert?” Jessica’s cool tone suddenly brings out a snarl from Uroboros, Chris rushing over to pull her back and winces as Wesker looks at him, then hisses in renewed pain. What the hell was that?

He hears Chris ordering the others out as Uroboros wakes, writhing on him and struggling, fighting against Wesker and his attempts to control it. But the mixed memories are too confusing, too  _ strange _ . He’d never had someone raise their hand against him in such a manner, and to see it from such a low angle, seeing the young, small body of Claire Redfield hiding behind him…

_ “He needs a chance,” Barry’s look is stern as Wesker waits for him outside of the hospital. _

_ “I’ve hired him on his merits, Barry. I won’t fire him for this.” He sees the bigger man relax. “Who did this to him, though?” _

_ “Did the guys down at the station know?” _

_ Wesker glances at him, seeing his stance. “Before I answer...why are you so worried about him?” _

_ “I’ve known him for a bit. We go back.” _

_ “And?” _

**“Why the hell are you taking in those kids? One’s a no-good--.”**

**“I’m taking them in ‘cause my friend died, and her son asked me to help out. I’m gonna help out.”**

_ “And nothing. He deserves better.” _

_ Wesker could see that...he wants his team to survive X-day, so they can come with him after it all. But he wants Chris with him, because even now, he-- _

Chris suddenly lets out a yell of pain, Wesker’s mind, still stuck in the past, sparks in anger as he manages to grab control of Uroboros, fighting it with his own snarl as it suddenly releases Chris from it’s hold. How  _ DARE  _ someone hurt his Pointman?

Uroboros’ sudden lack of fight brings Wesker back to the present, and he growls again, this time in frustration, before glancing around the room. At least his cell is only partly broken, but more of this and they’ll be confined even more. Chris, it appeared, had gone between Uroboros and the last scientist, since he’s against a wall and--

Chris manages to struggle up, Wesker’s eyes on him as he picks up something he hadn’t realized before. Chris wasn’t taking his meds...that’s the only reason his shoulder would be in that much pain. Uroboros’ self-loathing suddenly came up again, the being hiding itself from both Wesker and Chris as Wesker waits, watching Chris finally pull himself out of the room. The thoughts from before - his anger at Uroboros for touching Chris, for making him cry out in pain - cause Wesker to pace in annoyance. Since when did he care about Chris Redfield? Why should he? The man had betrayed him, had laughed at his creations, and had done all that snivelling man had claimed he would, down to the last. He’d been friends with  _ Rabbitson _ , cared more about  _ his  _ death and  _ his  _ disappearance, than he’d ever worried or cared for Wesker. Each meeting since the mansion was the same, without a pause to consider what he’d given up, let alone how his actions had cost so much in research. Wesker’s own movements had been stifled because of Chris’ lack of understanding and his open campaign against Umbrella, not to mention the whole thing with William’s failure to get away from Umbrella.

The brief thought of his old friend brings Wesker’s disgust at Chris up short. He wishes he was here, so Wesker could speak to him about this. Will always brought things to perspective, even if his own was very focused on his work alone over his family and friends. Still, Wesker does miss their talks.

“ **_Why are you tormenting him?_ ** ”

“For the same reason you’re continually getting him to go to medical,” Wesker snaps at Uroboros, getting the monster to once more whine as he sits on his bed again, looking at his reflection. He looks far too much like his old self, before he’d thrown off his mortal restraints, but the ever-present movement and nagging from the strange thing inside of him makes things different. So do those dreams.

The question does rankle Wesker. Why  _ is  _ he wasting his time with Jessica and her talks? Why not simply focus on Chris? Considering the strange mix of memories he has now…

He wonders if Chris has something similar, and frowns when he sees Chris coming in, arm hanging limply against his side.

“If you don’t take care of yourself, how do you expect to help them?” the question is harsh, but Wesker doubts that a kinder tone would do anything but make Chris suspicious. The strange memories only seem to hint and even back in the early days with STARS, Chris had a low opinion of himself. The strange half-memory of the attack is one to annoy Wesker as well, because there was no sudden anger at the attack, no fear or resentment, just...resignation.

Chris doesn’t answer Wesker’s question, which only serves to upset him more as he watches him gather up some things before Wesker walks over, getting as close to the wall as he could. “Go and get it looked at, and maybe I’ll stop talking to that woman about your...mannerisms.” He was going to stop it no matter what, but at least this might give him incentive.

Chris looks up at Wesker, a strange look moving across his eyes before he asks. “Why are you bargaining now?”

“I’m getting tired of seeing you hurt, and in case you forgot, the monster seems to like you. I’m not about to have you get killed by it’s incompetence.”

A bit of the same look from their STARS days flirt across Chris’ eyes, but a bit of pain stops that as Wesker glances up, wishing he could figure out the right thing to say. He’d been bad at this with Chris before, and had finally settled on simple truths and actions.

“I did meet Rabbitson, when he called you to that diner.” Chris glances at him, his look both confused and upset. “I was told to keep things quiet. If he’d mentioned the virus was out by then, I would have started a better plan. I didn’t realize what was going on until the zombies appeared at the edge of Raccoon City. Contrary to any belief, none of that was planned until we reached the mansion and I realized my chance to leave Umbrella.”

“And Billy?”

“He said he’d been testing you. If that’s true or not…” he shrugs. “If it was...he was putting you in danger, and whatever else you believe, I had picked my team carefully. I claimed you as ‘mine’ over Umbrella’s for a reason.”

Chris’ eyes narrow at the memory, but he finally lets out a sigh and heads out, shaking his head. Wesker isn’t sure how much of that Chris believes, or if he believes any of it. He only knows that seeing more and more of Chris’ actions and attitudes, outside of the field, reminds Wesker more and more of how he’d been while under Wesker’s command. It’s sobering to see, and makes Wesker wish he’d not been so foolish as to burn those bridges for half-hearted loyalty to Umbrella and his own gain.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris recovers a bit after a serious talk with Barry. Barry worries over Chris. Wesker does too, because of something he'd seen and his anger at it.

“I’d like to think,” the nurse said as his arm is set back into a sling, “that you’d take better care of yourself.”

“You think that,” Chris mutters as the doctors and others return, the doctor giving him a look that says he’s both worried about Chris but also has some information for him. Chris waits, allowing his arm to rest and trying to think about the best way to keep from taking the pain medication. He doesn’t always like the feeling of them, for a few reasons he can only hope the monster didn’t pick up on, and the fact it and Wesker had his memories was only adding to his stress.

“My guess is that it wasn’t just being thrown around that got that hurt, and I’m also annoyed you haven’t been using the meds like you’re prescribed, but I know that’s something you have issues with that during days you’re still on duty, so I’m going to simply ask that you at least try to take one during the start of your downtime, or before you head to bed. Burton will be able to take care of things, and so will Alomar.” The doctor gives him a pointed look as Chris lets out a sigh.

“I’ll do my best.”

The doctor glares at him a long moment before saying, “Fine. Now, about Mr. Wesker and his...ailment.” Chris visibly relaxed at the mention, the doctor opening up his file and reading through. “From what we gather since getting him in originally over now, the viral infection from before is nearly zero. Some markers remain, as well as various antibodies. We’re assuming those antibodies were what was making him ‘weaker’, or at least gave him that idea when presented about the serum Giovanne was using on him. However, what worries me is the Uroboros’ abilities.”

“What about it?”

“Most parasites will us the host, but so far the Uroboros has acted more as a near-symbiotic with Wesker, but so far that seems to be due to the viruses still in his bloodstream. It’s likely that when it doesn’t have anymore of the t-virus or antibodies to feed on, it will turn to Wesker’s blood or...other resources.” He shifts a bit before saying, “Those that it attacked and ate, self-defense or not, were digested by the creature, not by Wesker himself. No signs of any such occurrence shows, though it’s also likely Uroboros absorbed them and their nutrients in.”

Redfield sighs. “So as long as Wesker has something for it, he’s safe?”

“It appears. Considering how it reacted to Mr. Tollemache when he arrived in, and this most recent episode with Ms. Sherawat, I’m going to assume that he isn’t. It appears to be open to hurting him as much as it will hurt you,” the doctor gave him a pointed glare to the slinged arm again, “I understand your reasoning for your actions, Chris, I do, but I will have to once again warn you, and the BSAA, of proceeding as we are. So far, even with the information we’ve gathered on it, the cost could be permanently losing you from the field, and having a madman with a powerful weapon on the loose. Tricell’s trying to save face, but Umbrella’s earlier actions have soured public mood to it, and Giovanne’s actions have only gotten Kijuju and the surrounding countries to issue heavy sanctions, not to mention got America and other European groups to issue similar sanctions and heavy pushes. Asia, fearful of such events occurring there, were already pulling a lot of their own money from them. The only thing keeping them up was their work in the consortium, and that was on shakey ground after they sent Sherawat out.” He wonders what their goal is, though he doubts he’ll be able to get it out of either person here. He smiles at the doctor before the man continues.

“Wesker’s stable so far, but if we can get him separated from Uroboros, he’ll be in far better shape, in my professional experience. Whatever genetic manipulation Umbrella did before is not about to be undone - he’s still a bit fitter than most, even with minimal regimen he’s been doing.” The doctor pauses again, glancing at one nurse, who’s turning red suddenly, before adding, “There’s another reason I think it should be taken out of him.”

Chris glances at them, confused, as the doctor pulls up some of the feeds. While they weren’t able to get in sound - something Chris is only partly grateful for, considering the early conversation he had with Uroboros about it having his memories - there’s enough angles and views for him to see a few times when Wesker falls down, obviously in pain and confusion, or other times when it seems to be…

Chris would blush if anger didn’t bubble into his chest instead. Like Jill’s mention of how Excella had touched Wesker, like he was  _ hers _ , the only thing keeping both from not being too angry about it was that Wesker had  _ allowed and encouraged  _ those touches, using them to get Excella’s loyalty for his work in destroying the world. But this was straight up  _ molesting  _ their host, and Wesker’s angry but quiet reactions to it make Chris shake in anger. 

“It’s relatively recent, but it’s been going on for a few days. We’re not sure what Uroboros is doing, though we can tell that Wesker seems to be fighting it. However, that last bit is...worrying. I can’t say what triggered it, only that it appears to be going on at least once at night.”

Chris shifts, trying to calm himself down, but finding he can’t. Even a brief pull from his wounded arm, when he moves it a bit more than he should, doesn’t stop it. “What can we do about it?”

The doctor sighs, cutting off the feeds and considering. “Very little. Unless we have a way to either fully divide the two - which could be traumatic in different ways - or get Uroboros to understand what it’s doing wrong, or have Wesker get it to understand, then we’re going to have to consider it might go on.”

Chris hates that answer, but he has no way of demanding more from the doctor or nurses to try to stop it. Right now, he has to go and rest, has to hope that Barry or the others are able to keep it from doing that to Wesker again tonight…

“I’ll do what I can in the morning,” he tells them, letting out a defeated breath of air. The doctor looks over at him worriedly as Chris tries to rally. He wishes he had a few hours alone, but if he leaves, that’ll put everyone in danger. He can’t let that happen. He can’t leave, can’t...not until…

“Chris, you need to relax,” the doctor said, a hand on his unhurt arm, “you’re stressed and still on the job well past the allotted time. If you need, I can put in--.”

Chris shakes his head, mostly to clear it but also to stop what the doctor was going to say next. He didn’t need that temptation, not when there was a job to do. “I’ll be fine. If I leave, more people might get hurt. I can’t let that happen.” He wouldn’t be able to relax if it did, and even if it didn’t, he still couldn’t fully relax.

The doctor nods in understanding before saying, “You need to take your medication too, Chris. It’s going to help with your shoulder.”

Chris nods before heading back to his room. He hadn’t heard what happened to Sherawat or Tollemache yet...the report might be at his desk...he needs to rest, but…

Chris grits his teeth as he focuses. He can’t get all scatterbrained like an idiot  _ now!  _ He needs to focus, he needs to keep his cool, just long enough to get Uroboros out of Wesker before it starts to kill him. After that, Wesker can easily be handed over to the other BSAA members, and to the courts for all that he’s done. Then Chris can take a day off, just a day, he only needs a day to--

When he gets back to his room, there’s no new report, only fueling his worry. The pain pills are only going to make him drowsy, and while he wants to rest a little - said he would, the doctor will be upset with him again if he doesn’t - he can’t shake a feeling that he needs to make sure Tollemache and Sherawat aren’t doing  _ something _ to get themselves in danger.

He’s stopped at the door by an obviously upset Barry. Chris shifts, looking away as Barry crosses his arms.

“What’s wrong?”

“You need to rest.”

The doctor had called Barry in.  _ Damnit.  _ Why couldn’t they just leave alone? Chris could do this, he just...he…

“Tollemache was put up in a holding cell for grabbing you and being a general dick to the officer that got him,” Barry told him, “and Sherawat’s in her room bitching about accomodations again. Sheva’s keeping an eye on them.”

_ Sheva... _ Sheva’s his partner too, he can trust her on this, but…

“Chris, you need to rest.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You gonna make me pull out the big guns if you say that shit again?” Chris winces, getting Barry to sigh, looking away and running a hand through his short hair. After another moment he said, “I couldn’t talk to her about it, and I’m not gonna let you run yourself into the ground neither. I can watch over Wesker. The two know I’m not about to pull any punches on them either.” Chris wonders about that, but he doesn't realize how  _ tired  _ he is until he finds himself sitting on his bed, blinking up as Barry hands him a pill and a small glass of water. He obediently took both, not really in the mood to argue with the man - the first Air Force officer he’d met, the first who’d believed him, and the one he trusts.

“Uroboros is...it’s...Wesker’s being hurt by it.” He’s angry he can’t say it, can’t pull out the word, and angrier still at what that implies. He’d not been able to tell Barry about…

“You sure?”

“Doc has more info, but...it’s…” he shakes his head, but the full stress of everything is making staying awake hard. He needs another rush, but the effects of the pain reliever is also making it so he has nothing to focus on so he  _ can  _ stay awake.

Nothing but the idea that Wesker is being  _ abused _ .

“Barry...please stop it. I...can’t…”

=

_ “Mr. Burton...please...I...can’t…” _

Barry glares at the door after he’d made sure Chris was in bed. The younger man had a way of getting into trouble by doing the right thing, and it was a wonder he wasn’t dead because of it. Granted, Barry also knew the reason for his survival was that, when someone else was in danger, Chris would push through whatever else was wrong with  _ him  _ to get them to safety. It’s what reminded Barry that Chris was very much his mother’s son, and what worried Barry more than anything.

Chris’ worry and half-pleas on  _ WESKER’S  _ behalf is enough to get Barry worried, and so he goes to talk to the doctor briefly before going back to check on the blond man. The former Alpha team leader of S.T.A.R.S is sitting, reading and obviously waiting, though his frown grows when he sees Barry there. The strange mass that is Uroboros stirs, but it remains docile upon seeing that Barry is still carrying the flamethrower. He’s also suddenly aware of how worried Wesker looks, and he begins to silently curse Jill’s insight in sending him here. While she’s more worried about him using something against her - having left something behind to trigger, a signal or word that would cause her to go after Chris or the others, or that Giovanne had left for either Sherawat or Tollemache to use. The latter was, at this point, far more worrisome than the first, but Barry pushed that to the side. He had to take care of this, and make sure that Chris wasn’t worried about  _ this _ , at least. 

“Chris is a bit worried about you.”

Wesker frowns, closing the book and shifting, looking annoyed. The mass seems to move behind Wesker, watching Barry as Wesker asks, “What is he worrying himself about now?”

“Well, a few things, like the fact that your bloodwork is a bit interesting, but mostly because your friend,” he motions to the mass, “seems to be doing stuff to you at night.”

It’s small, and if Barry wasn’t looking for it, he’d have not noticed how Wesker stiffens, a light blush from something starting to rise right before obvious anger flickers over his face as well. The mass appears almost angry, one of the tendril starting to come up right before it falls down, Wesker seeming to concentrate as the mass moves, Barry shifting enough that an arc of fire would only hit a bit of Wesker, but not as much if he moves forward or bends. The monster freezes when it seems to notice him, and is torn between Wesker’s apparent power over the tendril, over Barry’s ability to get it with fire if he so chooses.

The monster disappears quickly, making Barry wrinkle his nose. “It talk to you? I heard it speaks.”

“It does. It’s being silent at the moment.”

_ Liar _ .

“Why is Chris so upset over these things, anyway?” Barry’s confused by the question, getting Wesker to glance before saying, “Uroboros managed to gain some of Chris’ memories, but they are...fragmented. I’m sure Chris knows, or suspects if he doesn’t know. But something I saw...worried me.”

Barry waits, motioning for Wesker to continue, though he’s curious at the change in topic. He doubts that the monster is done speaking about what it had been doing, and what Wesker obviously didn’t notice in the night. He knows a lot of the STARS team members, even before they’d been decimated by Wesker’s machinations, who would never have taken such news in silence or enjoyment. Even after the mansion, Barry knows that the others wouldn’t have liked to hear that Wesker was brought back to life just to be a sex-toy or something equally bad. Even now, if he could light up the monster and not Wesker, Barry would have definitely done that.

“...did you know Chris before the Air Force?”

The question gets Barry to frown before he says, “Yes. I encouraged him to go in, and helped him out. I wanted him to wait and go the officer route, but he wanted to get in as soon as he could. Since his mom and dad were dead--.”

“When did his father die?”

The question brings up a few things, and Barry lets out a long sigh before saying, “Drop it, Wesker.”

Wesker’s eyes briefly flash the red Barry had seen in captured video, and that he’d heard Wesker had after his revival. The change almost makes Barry flinch, but he’s not backing down on this. “If they’re dead, you’re certainly not protecting them from _ me _ , are you? Who are you protecting?”

Barry’s quiet, annoyed, and Wesker’s obvious annoyance and anger seems to be growing, resulting in him pacing a bit before he says, “Did you read anything from Spencer’s mansion, about Project W?”

Barry nods, though he adds, “He didn’t keep a lot of information on the Project or where the children came from, if you’re wondering.”

“I’m not,” Wesker tells him loftily, “but I will tell you this - no matter what else is in the paperwork they  _ did  _ get you - we were never physically punished. Verbally talked down to, challenged to do certain things, pushed and conditioned more towards one track over another...yes. But no one ever came at me with a half-empty bottle while I tried to protect someone younger than me.”

_ What? _

Barry’s obvious ignorance at it must have shown, because Wesker looks almost disgusted at him before glancing away, waving a hand dismissively. “I know what I saw.”

“So you claim.” Barry isn’t about to give Wesker an inch on this. He has an  _ idea _ , but that’s not the same as  _ facts _ . And while Joseph and Beatrice Redfield are dead, and Barry knew them enough to know neither would’ve struck their children. He also knows the gang of near-terrorists that also link to Beatrice’s side would not be above wailing on children, and Joseph’s also had its share of bad apples hiding in suburbia over their ‘bunker’.

Barry sees the red flash again as Wesker stands, book dropping hard to the floor as he growls, “You  _ dare  _ call him your friend when you won’t even work to protect him beyond throwing him to the group that would give him to Tollemache? That would cast him aside the  _ moment  _ he became a convenient scapegoat?”

“You’re his  _ Captain _ , and you betrayed us,” Barry reminds him, sneering back in disgust. “You gave over your humanity for  _ power _ , remember? You threw us to the wolves and were ready to throw  _ my family  _ out there too, so don’t you suddenly get concerned when you  _ never  _ once cared past if it would ruin your precious ‘testing data’! If you’d given a shit you would’ve asked before now!”

Wesker scoffs. “I was his Captain, yes... _ after  _ the Air Force,  _ after  _ his disgrace, and long after there was any way  _ someone  _ could have gotten him out of a bad situation. But you played house and were done the moment he and Claire left, and now you’re angry at  _ me  _ for not noticing?”

The two men stare each other down, neither ready to budge on their anger. Whatever Wesker claimed to have seen, it was a memory that had made him fearful and, thus, angry. The claim that Chris and Claire went through being brutalized and somehow it was  _ Barry’s  _ fault for not seeing it left the older man angry, the same way he’d been angry when he’d heard that shot, and found Polly hurt, and Moira shaking, his unlocked guns behind her.

Barry’s not the same man that Wesker threatened years ago, saying his family would be taken out by Umbrella if he didn’t cooperate and help eliminate STARS. He’s certainly not the same man who’d done his best to save Jill from Raccoon City, or who’d never been able to speak to his teen daughter after what happened, no matter what he tried. Whatever Wesker was  _ trying  _ to pull, it wouldn’t work on him, and it wouldn’t work on Chris. Rest of the pot be damned.

“All you did was worse than anything Tollemache could’ve done,” Barry growls back at Wesker, seeing the start of the monster forming again even as Wesker’s eyes glow redder and redder. “You were barely human to begin with, and now all you do is find ways to hurt him. So don’t even think about blaming  _ me  _ for the hurt he’s going through, when  _ you’re  _ the main cause of all of it. If I’d known you’d have been such a selfish, arrogant, inhuman  _ monster  _ I never would’ve told Chris to try out!”

Wesker’s anger grows, animalistic and almost feral, as Barry hears the monster for the first time.

“ **_You’d have allowed Tollemache, Davis, and the others to brutalize him? To leave him destitute, all because of your ego?_ ** ”

“ _ My  _ ego?” Barry snorts, moving so he could use the flamethrower as he points at Wesker. “ _ You  _ were the one who lured us to the mansion!  _ You  _ left Bravo team out in the dust.  _ You  _ killed Marini, and have the blood of all the others on your hands.  _ You  _ told Chris that we were all your ‘little piggies’ to play with.  _ You  _ only ever did your level best to cause him pain and suffering, and  _ now  _ you’re trying to care because some monster made you believe it had Chris’ memories?” The accusation seems to get Wesker’s anger directed at the monster instead. “It’s  _ molesting you _ and your only thought is to ask about some nonsense about Chris, someone you were ready to kill not a week ago! Forgive me if I don’t buy what you’re selling this time,  _ Wesker _ .”

A tentacle slams hard on the glass, though it pulls back when Barry holds up the flamethrower, Wesker pacing and seeming to mutter to himself. Barry snorts, glancing at the timetable before moving to head out, stopping when Wesker, now visibly calmer, speaks up once.

“It’s  _ Chris’ _ memories. He remembers going to find Rabbitson, the same night I intercepted him. He remembers meetings I had with him, after Davis and the others tried to beat him up and he attempted to resign from STARS and I denied the request. That’s how I know that isn’t a lie. He was beaten by someone. He was protecting his sister when it happened. Whatever else you think of me and what I do, Barry, at least Umbrella never  _ beat  _ their little geniuses.”

Barry snorted in annoyance and anger. “No. They just did experiments on orphans instead.” He walked out, making sure to keep his eyes on Wesker as he did before letting out a frustrated sigh. He wants to talk to them both, wishes there was a way to help them out - not just because Jill  _ obviously  _ owes  _ him  _ that $20 bucks - but Wesker makes it hard to forget his part in everything. Barry finds it near impossible that Wesker or the mass of a monster on him would even  _ suggest  _ it be Wesker on the--

Barry stops the thought and lets out a sigh, cursing himself. He shouldn’t have talked to Wesker about those things. He should have simply left it alone, but Chris’ tone and the worry of what was going on with Wesker had been enough for Barry to push for answers from Wesker. He wants to get the truth from Chris, but he knows that isn’t going to happen. Chris wouldn’t even have told him when Tollemache had been abusing him, when Barry  _ had  _ the power to do  _ something  _ about it. Hell, Barry hadn’t even realized all that Tollemache  _ might  _ have done until Barry took the time to track down the guy Chris had pulled out of the fire. He’d only told Wesker bits about that, but he knew that if they’d been more focused, that whole team would’ve found themselves in hot water. Instead, Wesker had been plotting their demise, and Barry had been focused on Polly and Moira and civilian life, so while they noticed some things about Chris’ life, they didn’t notice enough.

He wants to ask Jill, but doesn’t want to bring up Wesker to her, at least without adding that  _ she  _ owes  _ him  _ for all this. He’s also a bit worried over what Wesker had told him, and needs more information before he does anything else.

=

**_That could have gone better. He is an idiot._ **

“Barry always was,” Wesker growls out, as angry at the argument and lack of forward momentum on it as the monster. At least he managed to get one of it’s tendrils under control, even for a few moments, when Barry had provoked them.

But now the only possible way he could get information was from Chris, and he doesn’t want to see him until his arm is better. Uroboros and it’s machinations at least will have to wait.

_ Speaking of… _ ”It appears everyone is ready to set you alight if you keep up your nightly ‘ritual’ of trying to give me those dreams and then acting them out while I’m unaware and unwilling.” Uroboros shifts, angry at the accusations, as angry as when Barry informed Wesker of it. He can’t do much beyond glare angrily or think accusing thoughts at it. Whatever else, if he informs the scientists that Uroboros’ nightly ‘fun’ is it reacting to his dreams of having Chris take him over the stone offering table during those seven minutes, of being under his subordinate in the STARS office as Chris moves in him, doing his best to please his Captain.

He might tell them that, if only to get them to stop and to have Barry and the others leave him alone. He’s still trying to convince Uroboros that Chris isn’t worth their time, yet so far he’s becoming more and more worried and concerned about Chris, especially after today. He blames it on the reminder of their time in STARS, of the recall and seeing Chris’ worry, his fear, over someone so unworthy of his time as Rabbitson, and wonders again and again how different things would be if that man hadn’t called him, hadn’t tried to get Chris involved. If not, would Chris have been ready to accept what Wesker was offering? Would he be open to all that Wesker could have given him, until he laughed at the face of it?

_ Probably not.  _ Chris’ loyalties and his upset over what Marini said was enough to make Wesker believe that killing Marini was the best course of action, no matter what else was said, though he does have to admit that the rest of Bravo’s untimely deaths were not warranted. They’d managed a lot in the face of what they’d seen, same as Alpha team. 

**_If you tell them, they will want to know details._ **

“And? You seem happier that I’m starting to give in to your idea that Chris Redfield is worth something, as little as that might be.” Chris needs to take better care of himself. If this is the result of Jill being gone, Wesker’s amazed he never thought of taking the others out years ago to alleviate him of that particular thorn.

Then again, he still remembers that Chris was ready, even knowing Jill was alive and safe, to be shot if it meant Wesker would die. Such devotion to his cause, not to mention attempt to remain and seem ‘fine’ despite the obvious fractures showing up, was making Wesker worried. Chris had done this  _ once  _ while in STARS, and had a team ready to back him up. He didn’t have Tollemache and Sherawat breathing down his neck for it.

**_Then you will submit to Chris Redfield? You will submit to the one who defeated us?_ **

“No...not yet. I’m not defeated yet.”

There was one last thing, one that he kept in the corner of his mind, hidden from Uroboros. He wanted one last test, and then he might admit defeat to them both.


End file.
